After A Millennium A Renewal : Puppet Strings
by Kudara
Summary: Kendra Canmore, a woman with an unusual past, finds out that the owner of Nightstone, Dominique Destine, is also the gargoyle Demona. Though her father refused to join the hunt, she is curious about this revelation and vows to find out more. OC/Demona
1. Chapter 1

Brenna rode in front of her father on the way to Wyvern Castle

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 1**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: Mild violence.

Rating: PG-13

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 9/5/04; 02/01/08

Summary: Kendra Canmore, a woman with an unusual past, finds out that the owner of Nightstone Unlimited, Dominique Destine, is also the gargoyle Demona. Though her family refused to join the hunt, she is curious about this revelation.

* * *

She crouched motionless against the frozen ground, patiently waiting for her prey to step close enough for the quick kill. The night was still, not even the faintest hint of wind stirred the dead leaves still clinging to their branches. Her breath and that of her prey steamed white in the chill air with every breath. The light from the full moon had turned the glade into a sharply contrasting scene of silver light and blackness. The deer standing in the shadows stood almost immobile except for the nervous twitching of its tail and the flaring of its nostrils as it tried to determine what creature had invaded its normally safe existence.

Usually she considered deer elegant, graceful creatures, and she enjoyed watching them play in the mornings as they grazed on the lawn of her estate in upper New York. On the night of the full moon, however the animal nature inside her held sway over her human side and they were her prey. She had picked out one of the weaker, older deer that would probably not last the entire winter, as this moon's quarry. Stalking it, she had easily cut it off from the rest of the herd. Now it stood, terrified and indecisive, uncertain of where to run, then suddenly tried to leap past her. She sprang from her crouch and slapped its head with her paw, crushing the animal's skull with the blow. Ripping open the hind flank of the animal, she settled down to consume her meal, keeping a careful watch on her surroundings as she fed.

She enjoyed these nights of the full moon. She knew that she perhaps shouldn't enjoy them as much as she did, but all her human cares and worries were set aside on this night and only her prey and the exhilaration of the hunt concerned her. It wasn't as if she couldn't change any time she desired, but the nights of the full moon were different, on these nights she felt closest to the cat spirit that lived inside her. On these nights, it did not pain her to change her form; instead, it was a pure, sensual pleasure to slide into the jaguar shape.

She finished eating what she wanted off the deer carcass, and sauntered through the forest toward the river for a swim. She loved swimming, it one of the better things about being a were-jaguar instead of another type of cat, and it had the useful side effect of cleaning her coat of any blood from her prey. She moved through the water powerfully enjoying the feel of the cold water and occasionally ducking her head playfully under the water.

Finally tiring of her play, she decided to head towards the shore. Once there she shook herself dry and headed back to her estate house. The housekeeper and grounds keeper that cared for the house were gone for the evening and she sauntered through the open patio doors on the west side of the house and into her room. She barely spared a glance at the room's carefully designed elegance. Antique cherry furnishings and a monstrously huge four-poster bed sat against antique ivory colored walls. The room itself was spacious, even with the presence of the bed, with plenty of space for her to move about in her cat form.

She glanced at herself in the hanging mirror, admiring for a moment her blocky strong jawed head and muzzle, muscular deep chest, stocky body, deep black coat and thick tail. She was larger and heavier than a natural jaguar by over one hundred pounds and was taller as well at thirty-six inches instead of twenty-seven inches tall.

She concentrated on changing back to her human form, shrinking in mass as she did so and focusing on not crying out from the pain this caused her. Once she had recovered from the process, she stood up and looked in the mirror to see that everything was where it should be. She was slightly taller than average for a woman at five foot ten inches, with light olive skin, black hair and sapphire blue eyes. She was very muscular, both from her jaguar nature and from the hours of martial arts and athletics she enjoyed.

Reassured that everything about her body was in its proper place, she studied her face with a quick intent gaze. Her features attracted many admiring looks from both men and women. Her eyes were her most admired feature, their gemlike clarity of color garnering her many complements. Her strength and determination were revealed in the strong lines of her face, a square angular jaw line and chin, and straight nose. Full lips and a graceful long neck completed the picture, adding a feminine and sensual touch to her face. She was Kendra Canmore, daughter of Robert Canmore and Maria De Santos.

She had not always been a were-jaguar, when she was fifteen she and her parents had gone exploring Mayan ruins in Brazil after visiting her mother's parents. Separated from her parents in the ruins, the young girl had come across a hurt jaguar trapped in one of the rooms. The animal was unable to stand on its own, and watched her intently and without any apparent fear or hostility as she examined it. She looked around the room the jaguar had fallen into for a way to free the animal, and decided that if she could move some of the fallen masonry sections she could free the beautiful animal.

She climbed carefully down into the room, staying away from the hurt animal, and began to work on clearing the fallen rubble. She had not been paying attention to the trapped cat as she worked, and was surprised when the animal rubbed up against her side, apparently having freed itself. She turned slowly and looked unblinkingly into the animal's eyes, telling herself to betray no fear, though she was not really afraid of the animal for some unknown reason. It was one of the largest black jaguars she had seen, she found the animal's strength and presence impressive and its green eyes compelling, as she slipped into unconsciousness.

When she came to her clothing was bloody, but she could find no wounds on herself. Puzzled, she looked around for the handsome animal but could not find any trace of it. She had climbed back out of the room and found her family afterwards, telling them the blood was from a hurt deer she had found and freed. Her parents would panic and start yelling at her if she told them the animal had actually been a jaguar. That was something the teenager was not eager to experience, so she kept that particular detail to herself.

One year after the incident with the trapped jaguar, Kendra's father was killed and her mother severely injured in a car accident. Maria Canmore left the hospital after several weeks, but the accident left Kendra's mother with permanent spinal injuries and she would never walk again.

A few months after the accident Kendra began dreaming of being a jaguar, of her body changing, stretching, fitting into the shape of the cat she had believed she was rescuing. On the night of the full moon, exactly year later from when the dreams began, she transformed into a jaguar for real. The first time the transformation happened was very frightening and confusing for the young woman despite the dreams that had prepared her for the process. The following full moon was as exhilarating as frightening, and by the third full moon the transformation had barely frightened her at all. Even with her fears about what was happening to her and the questions she had about why and how she transformed, Kendra kept silent. She told no one, not even her mother, and due to her mother's injuries, it had not been difficult for her to hide the fact that she was changing into a jaguar every full moon.

Five years ago, her mother had followed her husband into death, leaving their only daughter significant shares in several businesses, a considerable fortune and an estate in upper New York as well as a large loft condo in Manhattan.

All in all, she enjoyed her life more now than before meeting the jaguar. She was much stronger and quicker after the transformations began than before, and had learned, after a few startled looks from her class mates and teachers in high school, to be careful to not bring undue attention to herself by displaying her higher than normal strength and quickness. Her body now healed at an increased rate. Fortunately, nothing had happened to her to bring it to anyone's attention exactly how fast she healed. She didn't know what she would do if she were ever injured badly enough to require hospitalization. The doctors would notice immediately that something was very different about her, no normal human healed as fast as she did.

She had been dealing with the changes for ten years, and was twenty-seven now; over the years, she had learned how to control the changes so that she changed only when she chose to do so. Now it didn't matter if it were day or night, or whether or not the moon was full. It was fortunate for her that she had learned how to do so for seven years ago, while she was visiting the loft in Manhattan, four men had attacked her in Central Park. Finding herself unable to fight them all off in human form, she had changed into her jaguar form and killed them.

Because of that night Kendra started martial arts classes, determined to be able to protect herself no matter what form she was in. Now, seven years later, she was an accomplished martial artist, having taken too unarmed fighting like a duck to water. Her martial arts teacher had commented more than once about how easily she seemed to learn the skills.

Her visual double-check that she did every time she changed shape complete, Kendra dressed and pulled out a suitcase to pack for her trip to Manhattan. While there, she planned to visit her cousin Jason who had been paralyzed in a mysterious accident over a year ago. He was very reticent about the cause of his condition during their phone call, and she suspected it had something to do with his family's obsession with gargoyles.

Kendra's father had always said that his brother Charles' choice to continue the Canmore obsession with hunting gargoyles would result in nothing but grief and it had not surprised her father that one had taken exception to being hunted one night and had tossed his brother off the side of a very tall building. Compound the tragedy was the fact that Charles had taken his children to watch and they witnessed their father's death.

Her uncle's children, Jason, Jon, and Robyn Canmore, had all vowed to hunt down and kill the gargoyle that had killed their father. They asked Robert for his help, but her father had refused. He was sorry about what had happened to his brother, but he would not kill a creature for defending itself. Kendra's cousin's had been shocked and angered by the refusal and all conversation between the two families had ceased, at least until last week when Jason had called and asked her to come and visit him at his new apartment in the city.

Kendra left for Manhattan the next morning, the moon was just beginning to wane and she knew she would not feel the overwhelming urge to change for another three weeks. Besides, she was curious about all the gargoyle stories she had been hearing on the news from Manhattan. Kendra doubted the gargoyles were the demons the Canmore's made them out to be, but other than that, she felt she really knew very little about them.

Oh, she knew the history behind, and the reason's the Canmore's claimed for their brutal vendetta against the gargoyles. She had read a few of the journals written by Canmore hunters, journals where they kept their tally of the number gargoyles they had found and killed. She had been horrified at how the hunters boastingly wrote about how many hatchlings and eggs they had destroyed. As a young teenager, she had wondered if the hunters had committed murder and infanticide, but in the end, the young Kendra decided it didn't really matter to her if the gargoyles were intelligent or not. The fact that the hunters had killed helpless babies was enough to convince her that the hunters were demons not the gargoyles they boasted about killing, and she was all the more proud of her father for rejecting his father and brother's beliefs.

The family histories included surprisingly little about what the gargoyles were other than calling them demons. They included lots of information about how to find and kill them, but little to nothing about basic things like what they ate, what their social structure was, or even how long they lived. She knew that they could speak and turned to stone during the day but that was about the extent of her actual knowledge of gargoyles. She had no idea exactly how intelligent the gargoyles were, the fact that they could speak indicated a high level of intelligence. Perhaps she would get the chance to see one in the city and look into his or her eyes and find the answers to some of her questions.

She enjoyed the ride down to Manhattan in her black Jaguar convertible; really, she couldn't possibly have bought any other type of automobile, and she always smirked just a little bit in amusement every time she slid behind the wheel. She stopped by the loft condo and dropped off her suitcase before continuing to Jason's apartment.

Her cousin answered her knock in a wheelchair and invited her inside exclaiming, "Kendra, you did decide to come!"

To Kendra's surprise, there was another person in Jason's apartment. Staring out the barred patio door was a woman with long dark hair. Kendra had a brief moment to admire the woman's trim feminine figure before the woman turned around to stare at her curiously. Kendra smiled thinking that the woman was a nice to look at from the front as the rear. Jason definitely had good taste.

Jason introduced them, "Elisa Maza, meet my first cousin Kendra Canmore. Kendra, Elisa is a detective with the 23rd Precinct in Manhattan."

Kendra nodded politely to the detective in response to the woman's greeting, "Nice to meet you." She raised a curious eyebrow at her cousin, wondering how he knew a police detective.

"I met her while pretending to be a newly transferred detective. She was assigned as my partner. She's been nice enough to come by and visit every week," Jason answered the silent question.

Kendra glanced over at the detective, she wanted to ask if her cousin had gotten hurt hunting gargoyles, but she didn't want to bring up the subject with the detective there. "How are you doing?" she asked instead. As fine as the woman looked, right now Kendra really wished she wasn't present.

Jason stared at her for a second, "Fine," he answered slowly following her gaze. "She knows," he sighed, "she knows about the gargoyles and about our family's history with them."

"Your families," Kendra corrected immediately, and then regretted it when her cousin flinched.

Jason grimaced, "Right, my families," he agreed and she thought she detected an overtone of regret in his voice.

She sighed, "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. So how did you get hurt, a gargoyle?"

"No, actually I saved ones life by stepping between Jon and it. Jon shot me by accident," he answered.

Kendra straightened up surprised, "Ok, now I'm really curious. I never thought I'd hear you say that you saved a gargoyle in my wildest imagings."

Kendra listened intently to Jason's story interrupting him to clarify some points. As he continued, she became more and more puzzled over the Demona that he spoke about so frequently, and what connection a gargoyle could possibly have with Nightstone Unlimited, which she knew was owned by Dominique Destine. Finally, feeling that she was missing a vital piece of information, she asked, "How did a gargoyle manage to direct such a research effort? What connection does this Demona have with Nightstone?"

Jason paused, hesitant. She waited as still and patiently as she had waited last night for her prey to approach knowing that he would eventually decide answer her questions. Finally he began speaking again, nervously revealing that this particular gargoyle used sorcery to turn herself into Dominique Destine during the day. Kendra was fairly certain that only a slight widening of her eyes possibly betrayed her surprise at this information, she knew about the woman from business dealings with Nightstone in the past.

"Let's say for now that I believe that sorcery can change and woman into a gargoyle and vice versa," Kendra smirked, letting Jason assume that she didn't really believe that such a thing was possible, when, of course, given her own reality, she did believe him. "It at least explains how she was able to get the resources to develop such a virus. So…go on," she prompted him to continue.

Detective Maza had sat down in a chair earlier and was listening intently to Jason's tale; at this comment, she glanced sharply in Kendra's direction and regarded her suspiciously. Kendra returned the stare with a smirk, and then followed it with a slow, appreciative sweep of the detective's body. A flush of color in the woman's cheeks and a narrow eyed glare rewarded her, she smoothly turned her attention back to her cousin as if her appreciative examination had never happened knowing that was likely to provoke the detective even more.

Jason, who had evidently not noticed a thing, was busy describing how he had saved the leader of the Manhattan gargoyle clan, Goliath, from being shot by Jason, and how Goliath had ruined Demona's enchantment that would have spared the gargoyles from a general plague to wipe out all intelligent life. Demona had tossed the canister containing the plague virus in the air and had gotten away as Goliath had scrambled to catch it before it broke on the floor.

Kendra noticed how tense Elisa became every time Jason spoke of the other gargoyles besides Demona. It was not something Jason noticed, and Kendra doubted most humans would notice but her predator senses had alerted on the small signs of nervousness. She filed it away for further consideration along with Elisa's silence during the story and merely nodded. She asked Jason, "So you and Robyn are done with this nonsense?"

Elisa looked surprised at her statement, but Jason simply nodded, "I am at least; Robyn is in jail serving a ten year sentence for various charges her first chance at parole comes up in two years. I would be in jail as well but they aren't going to press charges given my injury."

Kendra asked, "And Jon? What's he up to?"

Jason grimaced, "Jon blames the gargoyles for this instead of himself and has started a group called the Quarrymen to destroy the gargoyles."

Kendra rolled her eyes in annoyance; she had begun to hope that Jason would say they had all given up their continuation of the Canmore's vendetta against the gargoyles. From what her father had told her, and from her own brief chance to read Duncan's own journal, she knew that Duncan the First's had been a ruthless and unprincipled king. Duncan had only begun hunting gargoyles because a clan of them were allied with Macbeth and he wanted them killed before beginning his attack. Duncan had died to the gargoyle clan's female leader while attacking Macbeth's castle, and later when Canmore became king after defeating Macbeth, he had begun hunting that particular gargoyle along with any other seeking revenge for his father's death.

Her thoughts reminded her of something she had just heard Jason say. She frowned confused, "You really believe this Demona is the same gargoyle that first Duncan, and then Canmore, fought? But that would make her around a thousand years old." She stared incredulous at Jason wondering how he was going to explain that.

Jason winced, "Goliath said that she was probably the same person, she's immortal."

Kendra stared at him silently, absorbing the implications, and then nodded. Jason looked tired and she noticed that Elisa was looking at her watch. Kendra commented, "Well I need to go get something to eat, and Elisa looks like she needs to be going somewhere. I will come back and see you tomorrow Jason."

With that, she gave him a light hug, gave the detective a purposefully friendly non-sexual smile to confuse the woman even more, and exited Jason's apartment building with a light step. Walking over to her Jaguar, she noticed the dark-haired detective watching her and saw the envious look at her car. Smiling, she chuckled and pulled out of the parking lot, she had passed by a steak house on her way here. A huge porterhouse sounded real good right now, her stomach had been growling at her for the past hour.

Red wine and steak what a wonderful combination, Kendra sighed in contentment finally full. Pondering everything Jason had told her, the entire tale made less and less sense to Kendra.

Dominique Destine, sole owner of Nightstone Unlimited, was well known to Kendra, she had business dealings with the woman's company in the past. The woman was a shrewd businesswoman. She was not the type to make a mistake like making permanent record of your plan to exterminate the human race, and then leave it in plain sight in the company safe. Moreover, it wasn't as if the plan Jason had described was complicated, go here at this time, do this spell, then release the virus, hardly any need for the disk at all. Who took a newly hired personal assistant down to show off their plan to exterminate the human race, or at least part of that plan, on the first week at work anyway? Kendra thought with a smirk.

Then there was the fact that Robyn and Jon had been lucky that the gargoyle hadn't actually killed them the night before. Kendra certainly would have never walked off without making sure that 'dead' enemies were definitely dead. Something like snapping their necks or crushing their skulls would have been her preferred method of ensuring dead was dead. She would have thought that Demona at least would have checked to make sure of the same, that she hadn't spoke of a sloppiness that just didn't fit with what she knew of Dominique Destine.

Then there was the simple fact that Demona's virus, in the manner that the gargoyle planned to release it, would never have succeeded in infecting many people at all. One container of a biological agent released within a building where the people infected were all aware of the infection had no hope of achieving the stated goal of a world-wide plague, no hope at all. As soon as the city knew a biological agent had been released, and there was no doubt in her mind that Detective Maza would have immediately informed them, Hazmat units would have sealed the immediate area around the building. The CDC would have quarantined everyone within the building, and the so-called plague would have ended rather quickly, though perhaps unfortunately, for those quarantined. It certainly would have never even been given the chance to spread to the general city population.

Nothing that Jason had told her fit with the Dominique Destine that she knew, that woman was a perfectionist. A year ago, Dominique had tried to take over one of the businesses Kendra was a shareholder of, she and the other shareholders had been forced to fight off a carefully orchestrated take-over. Even while Kendra had been combating Dominique's well laid plans to drop the company's stock valuation in preparation for a buy out offer, she had admired the elegance of those plans. Only equal parts skill and luck allowed Kendra and the other stockholders to keep the companies share valuation from dropping. Dominique Destine had never even made the buy out offer once she saw her plans fail.

Maybe she wasn't as intelligent in gargoyle form as she was in human form? Kendra thought back to what she had heard from her business partners of negotiations that Ms. Destine had conducted late at night over the phone. Mulling over the gossip she had heard Kendra quickly discarded the idea that Demona wasn't as intelligent as Dominique, though it certainly would explain why the woman absolutely refused to hold any nighttime meetings.

Which left some burning questions, why would the gargoyle have made that incriminating disk in the first place, why let Robyn, the new hire, see any part of her plans, and why the quite frankly, stupid, method of releasing the virus? Kendra needed to find out more information about Demona to formulate a sound idea. Now if only she could figure out how to go about finding the information she wanted.

Kendra had been interested in meeting the canny Dominique Destine ever since that take over attempt. The woman's voice had been intriguing during various business conference calls she had participated in as a board member. Though Kendra had never meet the woman in person, she had managed to obtain several pictures of Dominique and had been pleased to find that she was as beautiful as Kendra had thought she would be. Maybe this puzzle solving would lead to meeting the intriguing Ms. Destine. Kendra's curiosity was roused now and there was nothing like a good puzzle to keep the attention of a cat.


	2. Chapter 2

Brenna - Questions - Chapter 2

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 2**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: None

Rating: PG-13

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 9/5/04; 01/28/08

* * *

Kendra paid her bill and wandered out of the restaurant, glancing at a newspaper stand idly as she walked by. The headline had her stopping abruptly in front of it, "Quarryman rally". She pulled out some change and bought the paper curious to see what her cousin was up to now. He was going by the name of John Castaway, she noted reading the article, and he would be at the Quarrymen rally that was taking place in two hours at Central Park. Kendra made a quick decision; she would go watch the rally. Chances were she would be able to talk to Jon and perhaps get some more information about the gargoyles from him.

She returned to her apartment and changed into her bike outfit, which consisted of thick insulated and armored black leather pants, a black turtleneck, black leather armored jacket, and black leather boots. Braiding her hair so that it would fit neatly into her helmet, she went down to the small garage area; besides the Jaguar, she had two Aprilia motorbikes stored here. They were the same models that she had at the estate because she didn't like riding motorbikes between her two residences in the winter. She decided would ride the RSV Mille tonight; it was a single seated sports bike, the other Aprilia, a Futura model, was more of a touring bike and had two seats. She admired for a moment the angular aggressive lines of both bikes; they looked like something Batman would ride, with a triangular body design that made for a very unique look.

She removed her helmet and after checking to make sure the radio was working, started an Enigma CD. She started up the bike and headed out the garage toward Central Park. It was not hard to spot the rally when she got there. She found a spot to park her bike under a street lamp and engaged the bike's anti-theft system then proceeded on foot to a spot that she could overlook and overhear the rally.

Her cousin was there shouting out about how the gargoyles were stealing children, how they were threats to decent humans everywhere. Kendra's eyes narrowed in anger, and she shook her head at the old tired routine, witches, Jews, homosexuals and now gargoyles. The same old lies were trotted out as justification for every round of discrimination and violence against each new target. It was sad that Jon couldn't come up with anything new and original. Then she caught the new twist to the baby stealing, the gargoyles were going to turn human babies into gargoyles. She was puzzled about why he would make such a statement, but had to give him points for pseudo originality though the same accusations had pretty much been made against gays for years. Unless he was implying they would be turned into were-gargoyles. That actually sounded rather interesting to her, it would be cool to have wings and be able to fly.

Jon finally wound down and she worked her way over toward him and took off her bike helmet. He immediately recognized her and with a shocked and hopeful look and shook off his admirers long enough to come over and ask her what she was doing in Manhattan.

"I came to see Jason, I read about this meeting and decided to see what you were up to," Kendra replied with studied casualness. She wanted him to think she was only slightly interested in what he had to say, in the past that had always incited him to try and get her interested in what he was doing. Just as she had hoped, Jon started talking excitedly about his plans to exterminate the gargoyles once and for all, and about how he thought that Xantos was protecting several of the demons. She nodded focusing more on what he was saying and letting more of her interest show, encouraging him to continue talking.

When he finally seemed to be winding down she asked in a low tone, "I want more information about this Demona that Jason mentioned, could you send me an email with what you have?" she asked Jon with a smile. He agreed readily and asked her if she had changed her mind after hearing the Demons plans. Kendra shrugged carelessly, "Let's say I'm interested in finding out more about these gargoyles, I'll decide if I'm interested in your hunt after getting more information about this Demona."

Jon looked pleased, apparently certain that the information would persuade her to join his cause.

After excusing herself, Kendra backed away, letting the Quarrymen nearby regain her cousin's attention. She walked toward the park entrance noticing as she did so that Detective Elisa Maza was standing there with a few other officers watching the rally and watching her in particular. Kendra had already decided that she had no chance with Elisa the woman was definitely straight. Still, there was no reason she couldn't tease the woman some more since Detective Maza's attention she so obviously focused on her at the moment.

She smirked and made her way over toward the Elisa, "Fancy meeting you here Detective, checking up on my cousin as well I see."

Elisa stared at her with searching intentness, "Is that what you are doing? Checking up on him?" she asked.

Kendra smiled at the woman smugly, "Jon likes talk, what he talks about I find interesting." She turned and looked over her shoulder at the remaining Quarrymen for a few moments before looking back to the Detective. She added as if it were an afterthought, "I suspect you know more about these gargoyles than you let on as well." Kendra paused for a moment to let the other woman's tension increase before continuing to tease her, "You tense up just slightly whenever they are mentioned. You need to work on concealing your emotions better if you are trying to hide something." With that, she smirked at the now glaring Elisa Maza and sauntered off towards the lake.

Baiting the Detective was going to be lots of fun, the woman actually had very good control over her emotions, if it weren't for Kendra's jaguar senses she would never have noticed the slight reactions. Elisa was probably nervous now about how much Kendra knew, and what exactly she was up to. Kendra found it amusing to think of how focused the detective was on her, even if there wasn't a chance of Elisa being interested in her in the way Kendra would appreciate.

Kendra waited patiently listening to Elisa and her partner who Elisa called Matt discussed the difficulties the Quarrymen were causing concerning gargoyle – human relations. The two had no idea they were being overheard, Kendra's hearing was very acute even as a human and she was crouched flat along the ground behind a log at least 100 feet away from where they were standing talking together.

Elisa paused and looked around and said in a low voice, "Goliath is really getting depressed about it not being safe for them to patrol, you know how they need to help people. It's been months now and they still can't go out and without fear of being attacked. I know they go out a patrol occasionally anyway, but it's really dangerous for them."

She stopped talking and looked saddened; her partner put a reassuring hand on her arm, "I'm sure the truth about the Quarrymen will be revealed somehow, I don't understand why people believe all these lies."

Bitterly Elisa growled, "Maybe if Demona would stop trying to kill of the human race they would. I can't believe she claims to be trying to save gargoyles when she's single-handily done more to ensure their extinction than anyone else, if it weren't for her these Quarrymen would have never existed."

Matt sighed, "Don't be so bitter around Angela, she's has enough trouble listening to everyone else especially Brooklyn blaming her mother for everything that's wrong."

Elisa nodded, "I try not to, I see how it hurts her, but I wish she would just realize that her mother is truly evil before Demona hurts her even more."

Obviously changing the subject Matt asked, "What's up with Kendra Canmore and the comment she made?"

Elisa sighed, "I think she's just baiting me to get me to react, Jason said something about her enjoying rattling people, and from the way she acted right now and when I saw her earlier in the day it certainly fits." Elisa continued, "He seems pretty certain that she's not interested in the feud at all. She does however; seem to be interested in Demona." Elisa turned toward her partner and dropped her voice further, "She really got interested when Jason told her that Demona was Dominique Destine, seems as if they have had business dealings in the past so Kendra knows of Dominique. What she intends on doing with the information though," the detective shrugged. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, "It's time for our shift to end, let's get back to the station house." With that statement, Elisa and her partner got in their unmarked car and drove off.

Kendra was not that curious about where they were going, she had heard quite enough to make her to want to go to her apartment to see if Jon had sent the information she requested. She wondered if he had any idea that Demona had a daughter, she certainly would not tell him if he didn't, but it certainly was an interesting piece of information.

She scanned the area intently; watching and listening carefully for any indication there was anyone about, then when she was certain she was alone, she rose and walked to her motorcycle. When she arrived at her apartment, the first thing she did was check her email. She smiled in satisfaction at seeing the waiting file in her inbox. Jon had already sent the information she desired, including several pictures of both Demona and Dominique Destine. Dominique Destine she was familiar with, looking at the same face in blue on a gargoyle was intriguing to say the least.

Kendra had been interested in the sleek, haughty and hot-tempered business executive ever since the buy out skirmish; the woman was powerful, beautiful and mysterious. Now she had another reason to be interested in the woman, but how was she going to get close enough to understand Demona? The file contained some historical information, mostly tales of how they had destroyed any gargoyles in stone form they had come across and tales of how the gargoyle named Demona had escaped them time and time again. A lot of the information was already familiar to her, her father had told her about the Canmore families past.

There was not much more information about Demona until Jason, Jon and Robyn had witnessed their father being thrown off the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. The file then repeated what Jason had already told her about Demona being Dominique Destine. A copy of the file Robyn had found was included, and Kendra watched intently as Demona described her plans for destroying the human race and using the Praying Gargoyle to protect herself, her daughter and the surviving gargoyles. The statistical specs at the end were a perfect touch, leaving the one fact that hung glaring in front of her. Demona had certainly not needed to make any such disk for herself, and she certainly should not have brought the company's newest hire down to the lab and opened the safe and displayed everything within it with Robyn there. It just didn't make any sense at all.

However, it now looked like there had been a chance that the virus would have been much deadlier Kendra initially thought. She didn't know whether or not sorcery could have magically spread the virus as Demona had claimed, she didn't even know whether the mix of the carrier agent and cleanser would have actually worked. Scientifically speaking it shouldn't have done anything, but mixed with sorcery? She really didn't know. Demona's reasoning seemed to have been that humanity was a germ that needed to be disinfected from the earth.

Kendra sat back in her chair frowning; there were several things wrong with the entire scenario. Her gaze went to the apartment's kitchen, and she stared at the cabinet doors below the sink. If the gargoyle had just needed a disinfectant why go through the trouble of getting an experimental one? Why not just use a common disinfectant like Lysol or bleach, certainly bleach should have sufficed, it was after all the most commonly used laboratory disinfectant and would kill or denature almost all bacteria and viruses. For that matter why use a disinfectant at all? That part had her completely confused; if the second agent had been a pathogen instead of a disinfectant everything would make so much more sense.

Finally, Kendra shook her head in annoyance. She simply didn't have enough information to judge whether the Demona's plan had any hope of succeeding. Nor was there any information in Jon's file to indicate whether the canister had actually carried an infectious agent or just an uncommonly strong disinfectant bound to a carrier virus that presented little danger to humanity.

The last attached file contained pictures of the other gargoyles in Manhattan. She memorized each and noted what they were doing, a truly huge pale lavender male held and older grizzled male in his arms prepared to leap to safety from the ruins of the clock tower above the police station. From Jason's story, she knew that Robyn had been the one to fire the missiles at an occupied building. Robyn was damn lucky she wasn't up for second-degree murder for that idiocy. A reddish male with a beaked mouth held a smaller greenish male in his arms ready to leap to safety. Next to the reddish male was an overweight blue male that held what looked like some type of gargoyle dog in his arms. Standing behind the two males was a delicate feminine form.

She used her graphical software to enhance the image and stared at the female gargoyle. She was darker shade of lavender than Goliath, and Kendra suspected she must be looking at Demona's daughter, the one the detective had called Angela. Jason had almost killed her, for which at least he had looked properly ashamed at his apartment when he told her earlier. Goliath seemed to fit the huge light lavender male.

Finally, she shrugged and decided to get some sleep; she had a few weeks until she needed to go back to her estate. She needed to figure out the best way to find out more about the gargoyles and Demona in particular. The files had made it obvious that she needed to be careful, Demona certainly didn't like humans, and to top it off Kendra was a Canmore. Still, the gargoyle had never killed a Canmore that wasn't actively hunting her, that at least was something in Kendra's favor.

The next morning she started calling certain business partners of hers to let them know she wanted information about investment opportunities at Nightstone Unlimited. She had always kept up with what Dominique was doing, both out of personal curiosity and out of a desire to protect her business investments. She had done so quietly in the past, not wanting Dominique to be aware of her interest. Kendra grinned to herself after the last phone call, this information gathering was anything but quiet, and it would probably only be a few hours before Dominique Destine was aware that Kendra Canmore was inquiring about investment opportunities at Nightstone.

It did not take long for the information to start arriving in her email, and Kendra spent most of the morning perusing the various investment opportunities available to her at Nightstone. Dominique Destine had a shrewd sense of business and there were several areas that Kendra felt comfortable that she would make a tidy profit by investing some of her money in Nightstone. She sat back and decided to wait a day before seeing if she could arrange a meeting with Dominique Destine, she wanted to make sure that the news got around to her that a Canmore was interested in investing in her company.

In the meantime, she needed something to do this morning. She decided to go practice at the dojo she visited when in Manhattan. They had a Kendo teacher at there and she always took advantage of the chance to improve her sword techniques while he was teaching. She picked up her skates and chose clothing that she could skate in later, and then went to visit her cousin Jason. He had heard she had gone to see Jon and she readily acknowledged it, "He was very helpful in sending me some information I wanted."

Jason looked at her suspiciously, "I don't know what you're up to Kendra but be careful, Jon's dangerous these days and Demona will kill you if she finds out your searching for information on her."

"I know just as much Canmore history as you do Jason, so I rather doubt that," Kendra commented coolly. "Even with all the reasons our family has given her over the years to hate us she's never went after any Canmore that wasn't actively hunting her at the time, providing of course that your right about her having lived for the past thousand years."

Jason opened his mouth and she could tell by the look on his face he was getting ready to disagree with her rather loudly, then a strange expression ghosted across his features and he fell silent.

Kendra nodded, "Can't think of one can you. That's because there never has been one case of her coming after us. It's always been us that initiated the violence Jason, and I'm planning on being very open and peaceful about my intentions."

He tried to persuade her for the next thirty minutes that Demona was much too dangerous for her to attract even the least bit of the gargoyle's attention. Kendra finally managed to leave after reassuring him she would seriously consider what he had said, but she really wanted to go figure skating at the Rockefeller Center tonight. She never mentioned that after her morning phone calls she was certain that Demona was already quite aware of her interest.

It was night by the time she arrived at the Rockefeller Center; she looked at the few skaters on the ice and frowned. She hated trying to skate when it was crowded. Hopefully the ice would free up and she would be able to do a few jumps and flying spins. She started out doing a few basic turns and glides to loosen up then began working on her spins, she was used to ignoring the stares of the other skaters, so it took her a moment to realize that someone not in the rink was watching her. She surveyed the area trying to determine whose gaze disturbed her and was unsurprised to see Detective Maza watching her with a narrow-eyed, suspicious gaze. The woman's partner stood beside her, watching in a much friendlier manner. Jason had most likely told the detective where she would be tonight and the woman was probably making sure she wasn't stalking any gargoyles. She smirked at the thought, she didn't need to go searching for them as she was certain she had seen one flying above the rink earlier.

After about an hour, the rink was beginning to clear out and Kendra took the opportunity to do some of the sit and camel spins that took more room to safely perform. By nine' clock there were only a few skaters remaining upon the ice and Kendra felt she had enough room to practice some jumps. She loved jumping, her inner jaguar gave her an edge in maintaining her balance and she knew that she was very graceful on the ice. When she started doing single and double practice jumps, several of the skaters moved over to the side and watched. She wished she had the rink to herself so that she could really show off but there were still ten or so people skating and she didn't want to risk hurting anyone.

Fifteen minutes before the ice rink was due to close, the few skaters left came over and asked if she would like the ice to herself for the rest of the time. She smiled and thanked them for their courtesy, then waited while they cleared off the ice to the edge. Having plenty of room she decided to show off and go through one of the routines she did at home on the frozen lake on the estate.

Elisa and Matt had been surprised to see that Kendra was still on the ice when they patrolled past that way again. They stopped to watch as the other skaters cleared the ice leaving Kendra on it alone. Then when she began skating using the entire surface of the ice, they both watched awed as she went through what was obviously a practiced routine.

Matt gasped once when she completed a particularly difficult set of jumps and Elisa stared at him as he whispered "She's doing stuff that only the men usually do, good grief she must have some strong legs to manage to do triple axles." Elisa turned to stare at Jason's cousin only seeing that the woman made figure skating look elegant and easy. She shook her head wryly at her partner, not blaming him for his open interest in the woman skating. Not only was Kendra Canmore beautiful, but she was strong and graceful as well, she made Elisa feel almost plain in comparison, not something the detective was not used to at all.

Knowing that the rink was about to close, Kendra thanked those watching for their applause as soon as she finished. She changed back into her bike boots and rode her bike back toward her apartment, before pulling into the garage she paused for a moment and examined the building and the buildings around it carefully. Considering it was nighttime she wasn't taking any chances of and angry gargoyle or anyone else surprising her.

She had spotted a man following her earlier and after cutting off the lights in her apartment, she crept out on the balcony to see if he was still about. It wasn't hard for her to spot him; he was smoking and talking into a cell phone. Idly she wondered whether he was with Jon or with Demona, before going back inside to reviewing her investment plans for her meeting tomorrow at Nightstone.

Demona had indeed heard of the introduction of a new Canmore onto the scene, and of her interest in her company. Kendra Canmore had certainly not attempted to hide her information gathering; rather she seemed to be trying to make sure Dominique would be aware of it. The surveillance tail that she had put on the woman shortly after noon followed her from a dojo to Jason Canmore's apartment and then to Rockefeller Plaza where the woman had figure skated several hours before finally returning home.

It was midnight before Demona's surveillance operative had his initial report ready for delivery. He dropped off the photo's and information he had gathered with the comment that Kendra Canmore was "one fine looking woman" to which she had just snarled through the intercom at him that she was not interested in how attractive he found Canmore. She was curious though after that to see what she looked like; he had never made a comment like that before about anyone else that she had sent him to follow.

The photo on top of the report when she opened it was a close up of Kendra Canmore. Demona was surprised at how different in appearance the woman was from what she had expected. She looked for the information on the human's parents and noted the Brazilian mother. That accounted for the unusually dark skin tone. The sapphire blue eyes were unusual as well, as the Canmore's usually ran to grey or grey-blue eyes from what she remembered. She stared at the picture once again; Kendra Canmore was definitely exotic looking with her dusky olive skin and handsome face.

She flipped through the other pictures and paused to admire a few of Kendra practicing at the dojo. It was difficult to tell from pictures how skilled the human was at martial arts, but she suspected this Canmore was just as skilled at fighting as her other clan members. Next came photo's of Kendra figure skating and though Demona did not know much about the sport she was able to tell from the pictures that this was yet another thing that this Canmore excelled in doing. She picked up the report on Kendra Canmore's history and noted that she had been approached in high school about becoming a member of the U.S. Olympic team for not only figure skating but gymnastics as well, but had turned them down saying that she wanted to enjoy her sports, not have them become work.

The report also included pictures of various women. Demona was puzzled by the inclusion of these pictures until she read the report with them. Rumor had it these women had been romantically involved with Kendra Canmore. Demona glanced, startled, at the pictures of the women again. They were strikingly alike in one way; almost all of the women had variations of red hair. Surely the human wasn't… She picked up the close up of Kendra Canmore and scowled at it, "What are you playing at human?" she asked it.

After a moment, she threw down the picture and picked up a completely different report. This one was on the man known as the Assassin. She had sent her acceptance of his price for the job that she wanted him to do earlier in the evening. She was paying this human well for his silence and his skill; hopefully he would live up to his reputation.

In the still silence of the mansion, its lone occupant smiled imagining herself as the leader of the Manhattan clan once that fool that used to be her mate was finally out of the way. With him gone, she would be able to ensure that her daughter was safe, that her daughter didn't risk herself trying to save humans that would only betray them in the end.


	3. Chapter 3

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 3**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: PG-13

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 9/6/04; 02/01/08

* * *

When Kendra woke the next morning, one of the first things she did was to call Nightstone Unlimited and request a meeting with Dominique Destine to discuss investment opportunities within the company. To her pleased surprise, the secretary informed her that there had been a cancellation and that Ms. Destine would be able to meet with her over lunch. The secretary reeled off a list of possible lunches, mainly salads. They all sounded equally unappetizing and Kendra finally informed the woman that she usually had a steak for lunch. The secretary sounded surprised, and put her on hold for a few moments, when she came back she asked if a steak from Chris's Steakhouse would be acceptable. Kendra agreed, she would arrive promptly at 11:30 am for the meeting.

Kendra spent most of the morning working out in the small gym in her apartment. Around 10 am, she stopped, showered and changed into a cream silk shirt, black leather pants and boots. Grabbing her jacket, she went down to the garage and rode her motorbike over to Nightstone.

Upon giving her name at the building's parking gate, Kendra was directed toward a reserved parking spot in Nightstone's garage. She took the elevator up to the top floor and admired the monochromatic décor as she walked up to the desk that sat protectively in front of a large door with Ms. Destine's name upon it and introduced herself. The woman behind the desk did a noticeable double take at her outfit, but quickly recovered and informed her that Ms. Destine would be a few more minutes. The woman then pointed her toward some uncomfortable chairs. Kendra raised a dubious eyebrow at them and instead went over to the wall length windows to look out upon the city as she waited.

Finally, the secretary called her name. Kendra turned around and her attention was immediately captured by the red haired woman now standing by the office doorway studying her. Dominique Destine was sexier in person than Kendra had thought she would be as she stood regally staring directly back at Kendra. Kendra took a moment to admire the woman's figure in an encompassing glance noting trim ankles and a narrow waist then moving upward to admire the delicate features and bright red hair. Kendra nodded to the secretary and walked up to Dominique extending her hand as she did so, the flame haired woman paused for a fraction of a second, and then extended her hand as well and the two exchanged a firm handshake.

"Miss Canmore," Dominique Destine greeted her with cool politeness, "Please come in."

Kendra chuckled softly, "Please just call me Kendra. Formality isn't really my strong suit," she said as she walked by Dominique and into the woman's office.

Demona frowned at Kendra's back as the taller woman walked by her, "Of course, call me Dominique. I understand you are here to discuss some investments you would like to make?"

Kendra knew she had won round one and permitted herself a brief victorious smile before listing the Nightstone projects she wanted to discuss.

Demona was aware that she had been maneuvered into permitting the human to use her first name, but her annoyance was quickly forgotten as Kendra unhesitatingly listed the areas of her business she was interested in learning more about. To Demona's surprise, the human unerringly choose the projects that she expected to do well in the coming year.

The immortal gargoyle had thought the human was just here to gather information about her, but as they settled down to lunch and serious business conversation, she expanded her original assumption. Kendra Canmore had a keen business sense and was a shrewd negotiator. Lunch was long completed when they agreed that Kendra would initially invest several million dollars in Nightstone, and if that went well the investment amount would be increased.

Demona studied the woman across from her as they concluded their business meeting; she understood now why the human tailing this woman was so impressed by her beauty. Pictures did not do her justice; sitting she conveyed the impression of leashed strength and power. There was also something different about this Canmore. Something that didn't quite fit, something that had caused her senses to alert when the human had first brushed past her in the doorway, and something that kept her slightly on edge even now.

Demona couldn't help but be aware that Kendra had been intently studying her throughout the meeting. The human had certainly not bothered to hide what she was doing, and Demona found this Canmore's interest in her rather disconcerting. The gargoyle was used to Hunters regarding her with fear and hatred. Kendra Canmore's gaze showed neither of those emotions, instead there was respect, and more than a hint of desire, in the humans sapphire blue eyes. Demona was starting to wonder whether or not this Canmore was even aware of her dual identity.

That notion was dispelled when Kendra commented, "I would enjoy the opportunity for a friendly spar with you sometime, either day or night. With the understanding, of course, that neither of us will intentionally harm the other, it's getting rather hard for me to find someone who can actually challenge me." Kendra waited patiently for Dominique's reply to her offer, hoping that the gargoyle would accept.

Demona gave her a hard stare, "And what makes you think I would agree to a friendly spar with a Canmore?"

Kendra grinned at her, "Worthy opponents are hard to find wouldn't you agree?"

Demona blinked at the smile, "Don't you mean enemies?"

Kendra shook her head emphatically, "No, my father wanted no part of that nonsense and neither do I. You had every right to kill Charles once he began hunting you. Every living thing has the right to defend its life, to kill, maim, or drive off its hunter if it can."

Demona was struck silent, not only by the words, but by the resolute tone with which they were stated. She had no doubt that the human meant every one of them, as odd as it seemed, there was a Canmore standing in front of her affirming her right to defend herself. Affirming her right to kill those humans who hunted her, and the human telling her this was of their clan.

Kendra continued, "I meant exactly what I said; I want a sparring partner, a worthy one, one that can help me become a better warrior. If we agree to become sparring partners I would expect that you would do me the honor of pointing out any weakness you see and I will of course do the same for you."

The human's words unexpectedly stirred old memories in the immortal gargoyle's mind. Gargoyles sparring with each other were expected to do just what the human had described, help each other become better warriors. To her own surprise, Demona found herself agreeing to meet Kendra later that evening for a workout in her private gymnasium.

"I'll return after nightfall then," Kendra responded, pleased, "Do you have any sparring gear here?" she asked.

Demona sneered, "You might want to bring some for yourself, but I will not need any."

A brief twitch of her lips was the only thing that betrayed Kendra's amusement, "I'll find somewhere to buy some for my fragile self then this afternoon. Will it be alright if I just have them deliver it here?"

Demona nodded abruptly, "That will be fine. I'll expect you at six this evening, do not be late," she finished in a sharp, demanding tone.

Kendra took that as her cue to leave. She didn't want to risk Dominique changing her mind about the sparring practice, and it looked like the red-head was beginning to regret her agreeing to it already.

As the door closed behind Kendra, Demona smirked; the human wanted a challenging sparring partner did she? The gargoyle toyed a moment with the idea of showing the human exactly how weak she was compared to a gargoyle, but then decided against it. The sparring practices would be a useful way to learn more about the human, and she wanted to find out what it was about this particular Canmore that set her on edge. The woman didn't seem to be a threat, and yet Demona had felt a vague sense of being in danger during the entire meeting. It was not a sensation she was used to feeling, and definitely not around a human.

There was also the fact that an infusion of several million dollars into her company was worth humoring the woman for a few weeks. Demona considered the human's obvious attraction for her weak human form, at least Kendra Canmore hadn't been objectionable as some human males, she hadn't stared at her breasts the entire meeting.

Kendra paused at the secretary's desk and asked for the yellow pages. It only took a few minutes of scanning thru the entries to locate a martial arts store that was not too far away. She returned the book, thanked the secretary, and left Nightstone. Once she located the store she picked out sparring equipment that she thought might come in handy. Dominique had made it clear that she didn't plan on using any protective gear, but there were times when a padded kick shield or padded target was really useful. After Kendra had made her selections, she had the store deliver them directly to Ms. Destine at Nightstone. Kendra just had enough time to drop by her apartment to eat a snack and pack a gym bag before heading back to Nightstone.

The guard at the front desk looked at her oddly when she gave her name, "I'll have to search your bag before you go any further Miss Canmore," he stated firmly.

Kendra was surprised for a second, and then she chuckled softly. "Of course," she lifted the bag to the security counter and even helpfully unzipped it. She looked on in amusement as all four items in the bag were pulled out and thoroughly inspected before being replaced.

Finally the guard seemed to be satisfied that the uniform and mouth guard weren't actually deadly weapons. "Ms. Destine is waiting on you; the open elevator will take you to the proper floor Miss Canmore." The button for the right floor was already lit when she entered the elevator. She suspected none of the other buttons would even light, but she didn't bother to try them; instead, she pushed the button to close the doors and waited as the elevator rose.

The doors opened, she stepped out of the elevator and looked up and down the hallway. Noise through an open door drew her attention; she walked toward it and looked inside. Blue padding covered part of the floor and an all in one weight system was against the wall, this was probably the right gym. Movement drew her attention as she stepped through the door…yes this was definitely the right gym.

Even though she had seen pictures of Demona before and she knew that the gargoyle and Dominique Destine were the same, seeing the same features in blue was…odd. Kendra's lips curved up in a slight smile, odd didn't necessarily mean bad though. Whether the features were blue or pale cream either was just as beautiful.

"What are you smiling at?" Demona asked in an irritated tone.

Kendra answered honestly, "That no matter what form you choose you're beautiful in either." She could tell that her response startled the gargoyle. Her eyes took in the differences between the form in front of her now and the form she had seen earlier. Wings, tail, claw like hands and talon like feet, pointed ears, she could see why humans would label gargoyles as bestial, but as to whether or not they were beasts… Her mind flashed back to her thoughts a few days ago and she stepped closer to Demona staring searchingly into the gargoyles increasingly wary eyes.

It only took her a few seconds to come to a decision. She had already strongly suspected that the gargoyles were intelligent and not beasts as the Canmore's claimed, and looking into this gargoyle's eyes only confirmed it. "Sometimes I really hate the fact that I share blood with a bunch of damn homicidal idiots, at least my father didn't inherit whatever warped genes cause the hunter madness," she snarled angrily. Only once the words were spoken did Kendra belatedly consider the fact that it was probably unwise it was to bring up this topic around the very gargoyle the Canmore's had been hunting for so many centuries.

From the startled widened eyes, Kendra could see that she had once again surprised the gargoyle. Her eyes fell upon the box from the martial arts store, and she seized upon the distraction it offered, "Oh good they did deliver it." Hopefully the gargoyle wouldn't get angry, and wouldn't think Kendra was mental herself, after all she had went from complementing Demona to snarling about her family within less than thirty seconds. She forced herself to meet the now speculative green-eyed gaze calmly; at least the wariness that had been there was gone.

"Yes," Demona finally answered after a long moment, apparently willing to let what had been said go without further comment.

Kendra walked over to the box, knelt beside it, opened it and began unpacking the equipment she had bought earlier in the day. Demona came over a minute later and began examining the pieces Kendra had already unpacked. The dark haired woman let her eyes sweep over the gargoyle beside her, admiring the female's figure and noting the obvious muscle definition in her arms, shoulders and bare stomach. Dragging her gaze away from Demona's trim, toned stomach, she focused on the gargoyles wings. They looked soft and leathery, something she hadn't really noticed in the pictures. They were also quite large and extended a good distance to either side of Demona's body. Kendra frowned as she realized that she had not considered how to spar with Demona without accidentally damaging her wings.

Demona glanced over at that moment, noticing the humans frown, "What having second thoughts so soon human?" she sneered.

Kendra stopped staring at the gargoyles wings and met Demona's eyes instead, "I'm concerned about injuring your wings, I didn't really think about the fact they would have to be so large to carry your weight. It's not something I've had to worry about before."

Demona paused surprised by the answer then folded her wings further back and closer together.

Kendra's face cleared in relief, "That will work." She looked around for a changing room, but did not see any door that might lead to one in the room. Shrugging she grabbed her bag and walked over to the bench at the back of the room, pulled off her jacket and began changing into her martial arts uniform.

Demona found herself amused by Kendra's nonchalance as the human began undressing in front of her and took the opportunity to examine the woman's body. Kendra was surprisingly muscular for a human female, fully as muscular as she was the gargoyle realized with surprise. This might actually turn out to be an interesting evening.

Kendra finished changing into her uniform, she turned to Demona, "It would probably be a good idea to go slowly tonight and get accustomed to each other's styles since they are likely to be very different," she proposed.

Demona sneered and seemed ready to make some cutting comment, but to Kendra's surprise the blue gargoyle only muttered, "Very well."

Kendra inserted her mouth guard, bowed to the gargoyle, and then sunk into a defensive position, "If you would attack first please."

A smirk was all the warning Demona gave before she attacked. It was deftly blocked. The immortal gargoyle was not surprised, she expected as much after reading the report on this human. Slowly Demona increased her attack speed and Kendra matched her perfectly, blocking each attack gracefully. Kendra called a halt and they backed away from each other and Demona went on the defensive.

Kendra was extremely careful at first, provoking Demona to angrily tell her to stop being so cautious, she wasn't one of the weak humans Kendra was used to sparring with. Kendra smiled in response, "I'm merely learning the distance I needed to avoid striking your wings. I understand you heal quickly, but I suspect a snapped wing vane would still hurt like a bitch and personally I'd be ashamed to midjudge a blow and harm you."

Demona sighed, irritated at this, but realized that Kendra would not seriously begin fighting till she was certain that she would not damage her wings. The human was taking her promise that she would not injure Demona very seriously, something the gargoyle found both equally annoying and amusing.

Finally, Kendra's attacks speeded up and Demona actually began enjoying herself as the attacks came in faster and faster. After a while, Kendra called a halt and suggested that they spar for another half hour then call it quits for this night. The next session they could begin sparring in earnest.

At the end of the half hour of sparring, Demona unbent enough to incline her head in response to Kendra's bow. The immortal gargoyle had not taken the human seriously, considering the sparring sessions an amusement that could be quickly dropped, but after fighting with Kendra for the past hour she realized how much she was enjoying the exercise. It had been a very long time since she had someone with which to practice fighting. Her only critique was, "You need to work on not being so rote, your martial arts' training is excellent, but you have a tendency to be too predictable because of it."

Kendra nodded thoughtfully, "I don't have any matching insight to give you. I can only complement you on your skill." She paused for a moment then continued in a softer tone, "I am honored that you agreed to spar with me."

She was sincere, Demona realized, startled. The immortal gargoyle found herself at a loss as to how to respond, she finally settled for an abrupt acknowledging nod which seemed to satisfy the human.

"When would you like to do this again?" Kendra asked. After a brief discussion, they decided to meet three times a week if their schedules permitted it.

"My changing room and shower are next door," Demona informed Kendra before the woman could begin stripping off her uniform once they agreed on when they would next meet.

Kendra chuckled, thinking of how she had blithely stripped in front of the gargoyle earlier. Apparently, Demona didn't want a repeat performance, "Mind if I use your shower? I'm sweaty and I don't want to get chilled on my way home."

Demona nodded, "I'll be in my office, let me know when you are ready to leave," she ordered and then left abruptly.

Kendra raised an eyebrow at the tone as she watched Demona leave; prickly didn't even begin to describe the gargoyle, razor sharp spikes of doom might though.

After showering and changing, Kendra stopped by the office and wished Demona a good night. It garnered her a disbelieving look from the gargoyle, and she turned to leave, not expecting a response.

The muttered, "good night," in response had Kendra turning back around in surprise, she nodded her acknowledgement and left before the gargoyle's mood could swing once again. In the elevator, remembering her own moodiness in the gym, she felt a pang of sympathy for the gargoyle. She was finding it hard to deal with her regret of what her family had done over the centuries, how much harder it must be for Demona to deal with her being a Canmore.

Demona rose and moved from her outer office into her inner one, she sat down at the security monitoring console and watched Kendra as she left the building. The woman was riding the same motorbike as she had earlier in the day, after meeting the human her choice of conveyance didn't seem as odd now. Kendra Canmore had more than a hint of wildness to her. She switched from the internal cameras to the building's exterior ones as Kendra left the parking garage. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a figure step out from the shadows of the street and attract Kendra's attention. Maza, she snarled silently as she recognized the figure.

She began tapping commands into the console, as she saw Kendra halt her bike next to the detective and remove the helmet from her head. She needed to hear what the two were saying; she needed to know what connection this Canmore had with the clan's pet human.

"Detective fancy meeting you again, I'm beginning to think you are following me around. Does that mean you're not as straight as I first thought?"

Demona winced and turned down the volume quickly as the exterior microphones abruptly picked up the conversation. A sly smile formed as she saw the detective scowl at Kendra. This wasn't what she had expected, but it certainly held possibilities for being far more entertaining than she had anticipated.

"What were you doing at Nightstone," Maza asked coolly, her question clearly the beginning of an interrogation.

The gargoyle saw Kendra's head tilt to the side, she didn't respond to the detective's question, instead she was silently staring at the woman. Demona wished that she could see the expression on Kendra's face, but the human had her back to the camera. She could however, see the detective's expression, and Detective Maza was looking more and more irritated as Kendra's silence continued.

"Sparring," Kendra finally answered just as it looked as if Maza was about to demand an answer. Demona snorted, she could hear the amusement in Kendra's voice. The woman was baiting the detective, and she wasn't being that subtle about it.

The brief snort changed into an actual chuckle as Demona watched Maza's expression, apparently that was not a response the detective had been expecting.

"Sparring?" Maza repeated blankly.

"Sparring," Kendra repeated slowly. She continued in a patient teaching tone, "It's where you and another person practice fighting together, hopefully with the end result of both parties improving their skill level." Maza glared in response, but Kendra ignored her displeasure, continuing in a normal tone, "I'll have to get better though for that, it was rather one sided tonight. I think all I did was to give her a bit of a workout, she's very good."

Maza seemed to recover herself, she now glared coldly at Kendra, "Jason told you what she tried to do, she was going to kill everyone if we hadn't stopped her and that's not the only time she's done something like that. She's a murderer several times over and you're sparring with her?"

Demona heard nothing over the speakers for a second, then Kendra replied, "Surely you aren't counting the hunters she's killed, I don't care what my cousin's say that was self defense. All they had to do was not hunt her and they would have lived."

"You can't really believe that," Maza snapped dismissively.

Demona didn't see Kendra move, but suddenly the detective looked very tense. Demona stared in surprise as she saw Maza's hand reach for the gun she knew was under the detective's coat. The detective jerked her hand abruptly back to her side a half second later with a startled expression that made it clear that the reaction had been instinctive and not purposeful, but it was clear to the gargoyle that Maza had come rather close to drawing her revolver. Kendra still had not moved or even twitched in response, she might have been a statue she was so still.

When Kendra finally spoke, it was easy to tell that she was angry by the sharpness of her tone, "I believe I might know more Canmore history than you do detective, and yes I do believe that. I don't know why you would think she's at fault for the Canmore's hunting her. Either Jason's been telling you lies or you simply haven't asked for the facts. So let me tell you the reason the Canmore's believe justifies every gargoyle murder they've committed over the centuries."

She continued sounding less angry as she related what she knew, "Demona and her clan of gargoyles allied with Macbeth. When Duncan, the Scottish king at that time, decided to attack Macbeth she stood by their alliance and they killed Duncan. Macbeth chose to not kill Duncan's son, who was named Canmore. When the Canmore became an adult he retaliated against Macbeth, by then Demona and Macbeth had parted ways and Canmore's troops were able to overrun Macbeth's castle and he was killed. After Macbeth was dead, Canmore vowed to kill all gargoyles simply because his father died in a battle to one. Last time I checked that wasn't usually considered a reasonable justification for mass murder."

Maza was still eyeing Kendra warily Demona noticed, as Kendra quit speaking. The gargoyle really wished that one of the exterior cameras covered Kendra's face. The immortal gargoyle had threatened to kill the detective several times and Maza had never looked as rattled as she had a moment ago. As far as she could tell, besides sounding angry, Kendra hadn't threatened the detective in any way. Yet it was obvious to Demona that Elisa Maza felt the same sense of threat from Kendra that she had felt earlier today during their meeting. Well maybe not the same she corrected herself, she had only felt slightly threatened, given that the detective had almost draw her weapon on Kendra, Demona guessed that Maza had felt more than slightly threatened. Interestingly enough, Demona belatedly realized, she hadn't noticed feeling that way tonight when she and Kendra were sparring.

"What about the claw marks on the mask," Maza's voice drew the gargoyles attention back to the monitors. "Wasn't the first hunter some boy she clawed and left scarred?"

Kendra's laughter in response to Maza's question surprised Demona, "Ah yes poor Gillecomigan, I guess Jason left out Canmore's own opinions of his father's hired assassin."

The scowl on the detectives face in response to Kendra's laughter faded into puzzlement, "Assassin? Jason only told me that Duncan and Canmore learned how to hunt gargoyles from him."

"I had a chance to see the original journal written by Canmore when my grandfather died, it was…enlightening, but not the way that Uncle Charles thought it would be when he showed it to me." Kendra explained coolly, "In it Canmore made it very clear that he thought Gillecomigan womanish because of the way he moaned and carried on about his scars and getting revenge on the gargoyle who clawed him. He also wrote that the man enjoyed killing gargoyles and men in the same measure. The only reason Canmore used the mask for his own hunts was because the mask was already recognized as a symbol, not because he wanted to take up the man's personal vendetta as his own."

Enlightening and enjoyable, thought Demona as she watched Maza's increasing uncertainty. She hadn't known what the connection was between the first Hunter and Duncan before hearing this.

Kendra was silent for a moment before finishing in a softer tone, "Gillecomigan was a man who enjoyed killing detective, both for his own personal pleasure and for money. He's hardly what I would cite as an example of an innocent victim. And in any case, unlike the other Canmores, I don't think that murdering entire families of gargoyles was in any way a justified response to her assault of him. I would think that as an officer of the law you wouldn't approve of his actions Detective."

"I don't," Elisa protested immediately.

"Indeed," Kendra responded, her tone shading toward coolness once again, "It sounded to me like you were agreeing with them."

"No," Maza responded to Kendra sharply, "no I don't. It just…" her voice trailed off and she looked troubled.

Kendra finished, "That it sounded more reasonable when Jason explained it? That's the hunter madness Elisa Maza. The older generation passes it down to the younger, and if I were you I'd be wary of listening to those justifications too much just in case the madness is contagious."

Elisa stared at her, "You make it sound like a disease."

"I do have a tendency to think of them as being rabid," Kendra admitted.

The detective frowned at Kendra, crossing her arms over her chest, "She didn't have to kill them, she could have disabled them," she muttered.

"Are you really that naive Detective, or perhaps you are just that callous when it involves her?" Kendra's tone was icily derisive when she next spoke.

Demona took in the detective's reaction to Kendra's anger with sharp interest. Maza didn't reach for her weapon this time, but the way the human suddenly paled, the grip her hands had on her arms and the extreme stillness with which she stood…the detective was definitely frightened. The gargoyle snarled her irritation at the lack of a camera with which she could see what Maza was seeing that frightened her so.

Kendra looked away from the detective; Demona could now see her profile as she looked up the street. A car's lights flashed across her face and her eyes reflected it back with a greenish glow. Maza seemed to take Kendra looking away from her as a sign that she could relax; the gargoyle noticed the detective taking in a few deep breaths.

"You seem to think that mercy on her part would have stopped them detective," Kendra turned back to the detective, her tone calmer, "You would be wrong though, she did leave some of them alive several centuries ago, but it only meant they lived to kill more gargoyles. Never once did any hunter she spared decide to stop their killing. Before Jason told me the other day that it was the same gargoyle, I used to think news had just gotten around among the gargoyles about what type of ruthless murders the Canmores were, that that was why the gargoyles had become just as ruthless as the hunters. Now I realize that she must have found out what they did after she spared them, and I can only imagine how much she must have bitterly regretted not killing them when she had the opportunity."

Demona stared at the monitor screen blankly, remembering. Yes, she had bitterly regretted not killing those hunters as she stood among the broken stone pieces of her kind.

"Most of the hunters were completely merciless." Kendra continued, "They came home after they had killed entire family groups and wrote about it in their journals. Wrote about killing hatchlings, about smashing eggs…killing the most innocent of all life. They wrote about it as if it were something to be proud of instead of revealing how truly monstrous they had become. Leaving them alive didn't persuade them they were wrong detective, the only thing that stopped them from killing was when she killed them," Kendra finished.

The angry, sorrowful bitterness with which the human spoke echoed Demona's own emotions as she remembered the small shattered forms.

The sound of Kendra's motorbike starting up pulled Demona's attention back to the bank of monitors, "So detective you can keep telling yourself that there would have been no hunters and no Quarrymen if only she hadn't ever struck back at those trying to harm her." Kendra commented, "Excuse me though if I choose not to do decide the same, because I believe she has the same right to defend herself that I do. Good night Detective Maza."

Kendra put her helmet back on and left without another glance at the detective, not that Maza tried to stop her again. The detective only stared after her with a pensive look on her face. When Maza finally spoke, it was in a whisper that the microphones barely picked up, "You may be right Kendra, but it doesn't excuse the fact that she's tried to kill her own clan, and it doesn't excuse the fact that's she's killed her own share of completely innocent people."

Demona's eyes glowed red and she growled as she watched the detective pass out of the camera's range. She would remember that comment, but for now it was more useful for Maza to remain alive. With any luck, Goliath's pet human would tell the clan what she had heard tonight and Angela would hear about the things humans had done to them. Her daughter hadn't believed her when she tried to tell her, but she would know that Demona had told her the truth if she heard about this conversation from the detective.

Demona waited awhile longer and exited Nightstone from the rooftop, making sure there were no gargoyles or Quarrymen about first. Tomorrow night she would begin her plan with the Assassin and 'save' her daughter and the clan from the Quarrymen.


	4. Chapter 4

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 4**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 12/08/04; 02/05/08

* * *

"Elisa," Goliath's greeted her warmly. 

She smiled, the unease she had felt since confronting Kendra Canmore dissipating under the gargoyle's loving regard. "Hey big guy," she answered.

"Were you able to speak with Kendra Canmore?" he asked. Elisa had told him about meeting Jason's cousin the night before, and about how interested the woman seemed in finding information about Demona.

The unease was instantly back.

Goliath stepped towards her, laying a gentle hand upon her shoulder, "Elisa?" he questioned in concern.

She drew in a deep breath, "Yes, I found her about an hour ago; she was leaving the Nightstone building."

Goliath blinked, "She was uninjured?" he asked confused.

"She was sparring with Demona," Elisa answered, she relaxed enough to chuckle at his expression. "That was my response; I couldn't believe it when she said it either."

"I don't understand, she is human and a Canmore, why would Demona agree to spar with her?" Goliath protested.

Elisa shook her head, "I don't know, I just don't know. It doesn't make any sense, but I don't think she was lying." Silence fell between them, finally she shook herself out of her confused thoughts, "I did find out a few things I hadn't known about the Canmores from her, things that Jason didn't tell me."

Goliath regarded her inquiringly, "What did she tell you that he has not?"

Elisa began retelling what Kendra had told her, remembering with a chill the angry blazing blue eyes, and the aura of danger the woman had exuded. "So," she finished finally, "Kendra seemed pretty certain that the Canmore's started the vendetta and they were the ones that kept it going, and that Demona only killed the Hunters when they attacked her."

She glanced over at Goliath, his eyes were closed and his hands were fisted tightly, she could almost see the anger and sorrow rolling off him. "They did terrible things, inexcusable things," she whispered, "Kendra was very angry and upset when she told me about it." She leaned against his shoulder, offering what comfort she could.

Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her, "Maybe that's it, maybe Kendra told Demona the same things she told me. Demona might find the novelty of a Canmore that thinks the Hunters are as evil as she does reason enough to keep Kendra around." Even as she said it she grew uncertain as to whether even that was a strong enough reason for Demona not to kill Kendra, "At least that's the only thing I can think of for why Demona would have anything to do with her besides trying to kill her."

Goliath frowned, "Hmm," it was an uncertain sound. "If that is so we should warn her that is not likely to last."

"Maybe," Elias muttered absently, her mind focused once again on trying to puzzle out her reactions to Kendra. It wasn't as if the other woman had made any threatening moves, certainly Kendra hadn't done anything to warrant the instinctive flinch for her weapon. More worrisome was the fact that Kendra had looked away the second time, allowing Elisa a moment to calm herself. It indicated that the woman was aware of the effect she was having and was trying to lessen it.

"Elisa?" Goliath's surprised tone drew her abruptly out of her thoughts.

She turned guiltily toward the huge gargoyle, "I don't know. There's something strange about her. There were times when we were talking that I felt… she hesitated then admitted reluctantly, "very afraid of her."

He straightened protectively, growling, "She threatened you?"

Elisa sighed unhappily, "No, that's just it, she didn't threaten me at all, and yet I was afraid of her. And my instincts are loudly telling me that she might be even more dangerous than Demona." She turned and met his gaze, "Goliath, I've never felt the…" she searched for an appropriate term that sounded less mystical, but couldn't find one, "aura of danger from anyone or anything so strongly as I did from her tonight and her anger wasn't even directed at me." She snorted, "Before meeting you guys and going to Avalon and everything else that's happened, I would have put my reaction down to being overstressed and needing some sleep." She trailed off, gave a frustrated sigh, "Ah, I don't know maybe it is that, maybe I was just imaging things."

He pulled her into a warm, comforting hug, "It is enough for me that you believe you felt threatened, no matter the reason. I want to be with you the next time you speak with her, we will warn her, and we will determine whether or not she was the source of the threat you felt."

"Or if I just need a good day's sleep?" Elisa ruefully chuckled.

* * *

Kendra woke up late the next morning; she made herself coffee and took it out onto the balcony. Gazing over the city, she considered the events of the previous day and night; Detective Maza had not chosen a good time to confront her. The moon was still full and her jaguar nature was very strong at this time of month, though she had not meant to, she had frightened the detective badly last night. 

Then there was the topic of their discussion, right after she had decided that gargoyles were intelligent, and that the Canmore's had been murderers as she had always suspected, was not the best time for the Detective to insinuate that they had been right to carry on their bloody vendetta. She frowned into her coffee, after a good night's sleep she wasn't quite so sure the Detective had really been defending anyone except for Jason. Kendra shrugged, what was done was done; at least now the detective knew where she stood concerning the history between the Canmore's and Demona. Kendra didn't really care what the detective thought, only that the woman didn't interfere with her getting to know Demona better.

Today and tomorrow would be slow days for her. Even with the immortal being as prickly as a honey locust tree, Kendra was looking forward to their next sparring session. She checked her email and saw a follow up letter from John asking her what she thought about the files he sent. She decided to be truthful and replied to him that they were very interesting, but she still hadn't made up her mind about Demona. Kendra resolved to ignore any more emails from him for a few days; with any luck, he would get the hint. More likely, he would hear that she had invested in Nightstone, become angry and begin ignoring her again. However, if he were as unstable as Jason thought, he might attempt to attack her for associating with his enemy. It was something she needed to keep in mind, Kendra decided.

As she had expected, the next day and a half were slow until it was time for her to meet Demona for their first actual sparring match. The guard waved her through to the elevator as soon as she walked in the door; apparently, there were no orders to search her bag this time. She went to the locker room to change then into the gymnasium. Demona was already there.

She looked up as Kendra entered, "You will probably want to wear some of that tonight, she motioned toward the padded sparring equipment. Since you aren't used to sparring with me yet I'll avoid using my tail this time," she finished with a smirk.

Kendra was so bemused at the change in the gargoyles demeanor that she didn't immediately realize what Demona had said. As soon as the words sunk in Kendra glanced at the blue gargoyle's tail in surprise, "I hadn't thought about you attacking with your tail that should make things more interesting for me later." She gazed at the appendage for a moment longer before shaking herself, "Give me a just a minute or two and I'll be ready." Whatever was going on with Demona, Kendra didn't want to risk upsetting the gargoyle by mentioning it because it was nice to see a less prickly side of her.

They warmed up with sparring slowly, after fifteen or so minutes Kendra asked, "Ready?" The only reply she got was a flat stare. "Silly question," she grinned, "Shall we?" The tempo gradually speed up as their sparring became more serious. Kendra was thoroughly enjoying herself. She had been practicing hard for the past day and a half, and she hoped that Demona would find her a more worthy opponent tonight.

Demona was not attacking at the gargoyle's full strength and speed, and while Kendra wondered if she could match the gargoyles speed and strength, she wasn't interested in Demona finding out just yet about how strong and fast she actually was. It would raise too many questions, and she had no idea yet what Demona's reaction would be when she did find out. As the sparring match went on Kendra found herself admiring the gargoyle, she was quick, agile and a joy to watch. She found herself smiling happily and was astonished to see a quick answering grin on Demona's face in reply.

Demona was surprised when she realized had smiled at Kendra's obvious pleasure in their sparring. The human was more skilled than she had given her credit for, and Demona found that she was enjoying watching her. In both defense and attack, Kendra moved with a gracefulness the gargoyle had never seen in any human, or any gargoyle for that matter. She almost seemed to be dancing with Demona at times instead of fighting.

Knowing that the human could not possibly match her strength and speed, Demona was both slowing and pulling her blows. Even with her fighting as if training a very young gargoyle, she expected the human to have some difficulty, but to her surprise, Kendra was blocking her blows and attacking in return with ease. Curious as to the human's capabilities, Demona began increasing the speed and power of her fighting. Kendra was still able to match her. After a minute of this, Kendra called for a breather and backed away with an unreadable glance.

The human was very quick and strong, Demona's eyes narrowed with suspicion; perhaps even quicker and stronger than a human should be she realized. Though Kendra had called for a breather, Demona could tell that the woman didn't need it. Two questions were uppermost in the immortal gargoyle's mind at the moment. First, did this have something to do with vague sense of danger she had felt around Kendra in her office, and had seen Maza react so strongly to that night? Second, exactly how strong and fast was Kendra Canmore?

Kendra wasn't pleased that Demona was catching on quite so quickly, the gargoyles suspicious glances confirmed that she was not doing a good job of hiding her higher than expected strength or speed. She hadn't expected that she would be able to keep it hidden from Demona for long, but had hoped that it would take a few sparring sessions before the gargoyle realized exactly how strong and quick she really was. She pondered whether to let Demona think that she had reached her limits, or just drop the pretense, spar as well as she was able, and see what happened.

Her deliberations were cut short as Demona stepped back onto the practice mat and settled into an attack stance, silently indicating the break was over. The gargoyles fast and powerful attack left Kendra only two choices, to block or be hit. She blocked the attack and launched her own, causing Demona to step back to avoid the blow. The gargoyle stared at her with a measuring, speculative gaze before settling into her attack stance once again. The sparring continued, but now it was at near full speed and strength for both of them. Demona finally got in a solid blow to Kendra's torso and they backed away from each other.

Kendra paused to breathe in deeply and check for rib injury, there was none and in a few minutes, she knew the muscular pain would be gone as well.

Demona spoke up at that moment, commenting, "Your stronger than I gave you credit for, no wonder you have trouble finding people to spar with that are able to challenge you. Did I injure you with that last attack?"

Kendra glanced at her noting with surprise the true concern in the gargoyles green gaze. She shook her head, "I'm ok you didn't hurt me. I can't fight up to my full abilities with other people. I haven't had a challenging sparring session with anyone for years now."

Demona looked at her sharply, "Don't insult me then by holding yourself back."

Kendra looked directly in the gargoyles eyes trying to read her, and then nodded. They began sparring again, and this time, as requested, Kendra did not hold back. Demona found her skills seriously tested as they sparred back and forth along the full length of the practice mat. This time it was Demona what was tagged by a deceptive attack that switched momentum midway and got through her defenses. Kendra backed off after the touch and looked at Demona as she rubbed her side and stared at her intently.

Demona had one of her questions answered; she had attacked at full strength and speed expecting to overwhelm Kendra, but instead had found herself evenly matched. The gargoyle commented suspiciously, "You aren't fully human are you, what are you a mutate of some type?" Kendra glanced at her but did not answer. Demona grinned not surprised that Kendra would not trust her with the answer yet, "Do the other Canmore's know?"

Kendra shook her head, "And I would rather they didn't please."

Demona was surprised by the request. She slowly nodded her agreement, "I certainly will not bother to inform them." Since she couldn't see any advantage she could gain by telling them, it was an easy promise for the gargoyle to make.

Kendra stared at the flame haired gargoyle for a long moment, "So do I need to start worrying about you locking me up somewhere to figure me out?" She asked evenly.

Demona paused, amused by the direct question. "Would you even trust my answer?" Before Kendra could reply the gargoyle waved a dismissive hand, "I'd rather keep you as a sparring partner, so you don't need to worry about me locking you up one night. Besides, I'm certain I will figure it out anyway."

Kendra chuckled, amused by the gargoyles self-confidence, "Very well, did you want to continue our sparring?"

Demona smirked, "Best two out of three; we are evenly matched so far."

They began again, but neither immediately went on the attack. Instead, they circled each other each looking for the opening that would allow them to win the match. They exchanged a flurry of blows, and Kendra thought she saw the opening she was watching for, she gripped Demona's forearm, attempting to pull the gargoyle off balance. Unfortunately she didn't realize how much heavier the gargoyle was than a human of the same size.

Demona chuckled at Kendra's surprised expression right before she shifted her weight throwing Kendra off balance instead and threw the human to the mat. The gargoyle moved swiftly to exploit her advantage, straddling the woman and using her greater mass to pin her against the mat no matter how she struggled to break free.

Kendra gritted her teeth and strained against the taloned hands holding her down, unable to accept that Demona was stronger than she was, no one had been stronger than she was for several years. She stared into the triumphant gaze of the gargoyle above her, unwilling as yet to admit defeat. She might be able to break free if she kneed Demona in the back and knocked her off balance, but she would strike the gargoyles wings if she did that, and she didn't want to risk injuring them.

Demona knew she had won; Kendra had impressive upper body strength, but was not strong enough to free herself with brute strength alone. The human wasn't using her legs to knock her away, which might have worked. Demona suspected it was because Kendra feared damaging her wings. Still it wasn't her fault the human wasn't taking advantage of the only way she could break free. Demona leaned closer; she was going to enjoy this. The red lips parted, "Surrender," she purred.

The gargoyle was about to rub the human's defeat in further only to be startled by the feel of Kendra suddenly relaxing underneath her. The blue eyes locked onto her own darkened in unmistakable arousal, the rest of the words died in her throat as she realized how Kendra had taken what she had said, and how much the woman was apparently willing to surrender to her at this moment. Demona froze staring down at the woman beneath her, then startled at the direction her thoughts were taking; she abruptly released the human and stood up.

Demona glanced briefly at Kendra as the woman got up from the mat, her mind unhelpfully replaying the woman's reaction to her demand, the moment she had stopped struggling against Demona's strength, the look of desire on her face. Demona had known that Kendra was attracted to her, but what had happened a moment ago had caught her by surprise, as had her own momentary impulse to keep holding the woman down.

She had expected that she would have to put Kendra in her place at some point due to the woman's attraction to her; but she had never thought that she would respond to that desire. She had never found humans attractive in that way…but then Kendra wasn't just a human. No human possessed the deadly, graceful strength Demona had admired so much during their sparring, and the feel of that strength surrendering so completely… Demona shook her head angrily and finally noticed Kendra's expression. She looked confused, apparently, what had occurred had taken them equally by surprise, the gargoyle found that realization oddly calming. Demona asked curious as to how Kendra would respond, "What's bothering you? Trying to figure out how you lost that last match?"

Kendra shook her head, "I didn't expect you to have as much mass as you do; I miscalculated the amount of force needed." She did not comment on her reaction to Demona's demand that she surrender, she was still trying to figure out why she had reacted as strongly, and more importantly, as submissively as she had. She had never felt the desire to yield to anyone before, in her past relationships she had always been the strong one, the one in control.

All of Kendra's relationships had ended when she realized that something was lacking, or she realized the women were with her more for her money than for herself. She had been too young before she had met the jaguar to be interested such things, she hadn't even known she was gay then. Once she had become sexually active she had certainly never been physically overpowered by anyone, indeed she had always felt the need to be very careful and gentle with her lovers. Kendra wasn't entirely sure she wanted analyze why being overpowered and feeling helpless in Demona's grip, and then being told to surrender, had resulted in the sudden surge of arousal she had experienced.

Kendra began taking off her safety equipment and stacking it. "When did you want to spar again?" she asked when she was done, finally looking at Demona.

Demona raised one eyebrow, "We can meet night after next for a short session, and again Friday and Monday. I have plans for the evenings this weekend that I cannot reschedule."

Kendra nodded, "I will be in town for another two weeks, and then I will be out of town during the full moon. I always spend that time at my estate in upper New York. But besides that time I should be available."

Demona replied, "I will be working for awhile longer, let me know when you are ready to leave."

Kendra showered, ignoring one problem by concentrating on another; she hoped that Demona would not decide to betray her word to her. She would have to be careful, but she had to give the gargoyle the chance to either keep her word or break it.

Demona stared out the window pondering what all had happened this evening. She intended to keep Kendra's secret. She enjoyed having someone to practice with, and now that neither one of them was holding back during their sparring she was enjoying it far more than she had ever anticipated.

That, however, wasn't the only reason she would keep Kendra's secret. This Canmore could be very useful to her once Goliath was out of the way and she took over the leadership of the clan. Given how Kendra had reacted to Maza's insinuations last night, Demona was certain she could persuade Kendra to tell the clan about everything that the Canmore Hunters had done over the centuries they had hunted her. They would believe Kendra, and that would make it much easier for Demona to persuade them how dangerous humans could be.

As for Kendra's secret, it hadn't escaped Demona's notice that while Kendra had been dismayed that the gargoyle noticed her abilities, she hadn't been particularly upset. Cautious and wary yes, but not that upset. The woman had to have known that sparring with Demona would eventually result in just what had happened tonight. That meant that either Kendra was very naive, or she was certain that Demona would not be interested in exploiting whatever her secret was once the gargoyle found it out. Demona didn't really have any idea what Kendra was, but perhaps the woman had revealed something when she said that she would spend the full moon at her estate. She would have to do some research to see if that piece of information lead to any answers, Demona frowned considering the current demands on her time, as soon as she had the time she would research it she resolved.

Then there was the last thing that had happened tonight, the moment in the gym, one that Kendra apparently didn't want to admit to any more then Demona did from the way she had avoided Demona's gaze for a while afterward.

Demona remembered the first time she had seen two women together. It had been a few months after the massacre of her clan at the castle. She had found a cottage out in the middle of a forest. Thinking it was a deserted house; she had crept in trying to find some food and had been lucky to find some stored fruit and cheese. Then she had heard the moans from the loft. She had froze as she heard a feminine voice say, "I love the way you look right now all soft and wanting me to touch you. But I think I'll make you wait for what you want." The woman had chuckled throatily and then a different feminine voice had groaned in what sounded like a plea.

Demona had been confused at first, she had heard human men and women together but never two women, she had not even been aware that two women could be mates. Curious, she had left the cottage and quietly crawled up to the roof and found an open window she could stare in without being seen. There were two women naked in a bed, one on top of the other.

The dark haired woman on top had the other woman's arms pinned to her side and was busy nibbling down her stomach. The woman being pinned was blond and she struggled slightly against the dark haired woman's hold, but what was occurring seemed entirely consensual since she looked very aroused by what the dark haired woman was doing. The dark haired woman continued downward and Demona realized with shock exactly what the woman had to be doing. The blond woman was moaning and trembling and Demona looked away and then back as she heard the dark haired woman ask, "Is this mine?" The blonde groaned and said in a hoarse whisper, "Yes." The dark haired woman growled softly then returned to what she had been doing as Demona looked away again.

Demona had never heard this type of love play between humans, but then human males assumed their women belonged to them, in that way human and gargoyle males were rather alike Demona had noticed. Perhaps this type of love play only took place between human females.

After a few minutes, she heard again, "Is this mine?" She glanced back in the window as the other woman said in a deep voice, "Yes." It took a moment for Demona to realize that the dark haired woman was using her fingers to thrust into the other woman. The gargoyle looked away again and then back as the blonde's moans and whimpers escalated and she started shuddering in release. Demona expected that the dark haired woman would be done now, but she paused only a moment to watch the other woman looking satisfied then returned to what she had been doing apparently intent on bringing the other woman to release yet again.

Demona had intended to leave but now she was curious as to how many times the dark haired woman intended to bring her partner pleasure. Human males stopped satisfied with the one from what she had seen around the castle. She waited, after two more cries in the darkness there was quiet, looking in the window she saw that the blonde was exhausted. She lay gasping and the dark haired woman smiled and moved upward to cradle her against her saying, "Sleep my love."

The blonde said weakly "You need?" and the dark haired woman said "No, I'm alright, sleep." The blonde seemed to relax then and the dark haired woman smiled and snuffed out the candle, their forms snuggled against each other on the bed and then it was quiet except for their breathing.

She had left once the two women were asleep, but had returned by the clearing occasionally to see what they were doing. The last time she had went she had found the bodies of the two women. They had been savagely attacked; around the bodies were the footprints of several men. Demona had taken the time to bury the two women and had later found out the reason for the attack. She had overheard two men bragging about how they and others had killed the two women; they had called the two women unnatural and had said they were in league with the Devil. Listening to the two men Demona had been unsettled by the hatred and venom in their tones, and how the others listening to them had agreed that they had acted justly.

Demona had known humans hated her kind, but obviously, they hated what the two women represented just as much. She had watched the gentleness and obvious love the two women had for each other and could not understand why that love incited such hatred. The gargoyle had followed the two men as they left and had taken great pleasure in killing them both.

She had not known of the word lesbian at the time, but 600 years later she knew the word and found herself frequently cursing the sexual stamina of the two women who lived below her as she tried to study her sorcery during the night. They only saw each other on weekends as both of them were maids, but they made up for all the lost time during the week when they were together.

Demona had finally counted the hours they made love during one winter weekend when the nights were long and came up with a truly amazing number. Demona remembered how she had smirked when she realized the two had spent no less than 12 hours of the 24 night hours making love. No wonder the male humans seemed so threatened by these women, they obviously realized how poorly they measured against a woman's stamina.

Demona smirked in her office as she remembered her annoyance at the two women who made it so difficult to study on the weekends. Kendra walked in at that moment and gave her a curious look, but merely wished her a good evening before turning and leaving. Demona sighed knowing that she would have to deal with what had occurred in the gym sometime, but more important right now was the plan she had to get Goliath out of the way and lead the Wyvern Clan for herself.

That night Kendra dreamed, her subconscious rebelliously bringing up what her conscious mind would prefer to forget. She was lying on her stomach; Demona's toned muscular form resting partially upon her, pressing her into the surface of the bedding. The flame haired gargoyle was softly growling as she bit gently upon nape of Kendra's neck while holding her arms pinned firmly to the bed. Kendra moaned as she felt a gentle, teasing touch upon her most intimate flesh, and then the satisfaction of being filled. At first she could not comprehend how Demona was managing this until it dawned on her that what she felt gently thrusting inside her was the gargoyles tail. Between the steady penetration and the teasing nipping bites along her neck and shoulders, it was not long before she was writhing under Demona. Release seemed always just beyond her grasp until Demona bit into the muscle at the junction of her shoulder and neck. The sweet pain was enough to finally send her over the edge.

The orgasm woke Kendra from the dream while her body was still twitching with the aftershocks. "Damn," she whispered shakily to the dark room. She rubbed her neck where she remembered being bitten then got up on shaking legs to go to the bathroom and shower. She was drenched with sweat.


	5. Chapter 5

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 5**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 1/14/05; 02/07/08

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Kendra tried to banish the memories of her dream as she walked into the gym Wednesday night. She tried not to stare speculatively at Demona's tail. Tried not to figure out whether or not what she had dreamed about was even possible, and when she decided that it was she desperately tried to ignore the quick flash of heated arousal the realization brought. 

When Demona paused during a break to examine her tail frowningly, Kendra knew she had failed. As soon as they began sparring again, Demona whipped around, her tail sweeping in low and fast and knocked Kendra off her feet. Kendra's breath left in an abrupt exhale as her back slammed into the mat, and it was a second before she could breathe in again.

She looked up meeting the gargoyles irritated glare, "You need to concentrate on your fighting or I'll keep dumping you there," the redhead snapped.

Kendra felt a heated flush spread across her face and dropped her eyes, "Sorry," she apologized.

An annoyed sigh drew her attention back to the gargoyles green eyes, "Get up," Demona ordered, "And focus on sparring." She emphasized the last word harshly.

"Yes ma'am," Kendra responded automatically to the tone then growled under her breath in annoyance. She rolled to her feet and glanced warily at Demona, the gargoyle's scowl had been replaced by a smirk. She sighed; at least the redhead seemed to be over her annoyance.

One hour later Demona exchanged good nights with Kendra and watched the black haired woman leave her office. She wasn't certain why she wasn't more annoyed at the woman. The blushing, furtive glances at her tail had made it only too obvious that Kendra's thoughts were definitely not focused on how Demona might use the appendage as a weapon. At least it had only taken the one hard fall for the human to focus her thoughts where they were supposed to be, sparring.

Friday's sparring session was much easier for Kendra as she had not dreamed of Demona after that one time. When the redheaded gargoyle tried to knock her off her feet using the same attack, Kendra was able to avoid the sweep of the tail and even scored a hit on Demona. The gargoyle even complemented her for spotting the attack and turning it to her advantage.

Monday night Kendra entered the gymnasium, but did not see Demona anywhere. Curious she walked up stairs and called out Demona's name.

The reply came from Demona's office, "In my office. Sorry I didn't cancel our session, I forgot about it."

Kendra paused, noticing the obvious pain in the gargoyles tone, and she stepped tentatively into the office. Demona was standing by the windows, looking out over the city. Kendra walked up beside her and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Demona snapped, "I didn't ask you to come in here, just leave," despite the words, there was little actual fire in the gargoyle's tone.

Kendra looked at the gargoyles face and realized with astonishment that she had been crying. She questioned sharply, "What's happened, whose hurt you?" Unaware of how protective she suddenly sounded.

Demona glanced at her, surprised out of her misery for a moment at Kendra's tone and her protectively bristling form. She shook her head, "Nothing that you can fight, just some problems in my personal life."

Kendra was surprised by the admission, she offered, "If you want to talk about it, nothing you say will go out of this office. I'm a good listener."

Demona grimaced at the thought; Kendra would not sympathize with her if the human knew the reason for her current difficulty, "Thank you, but no."

Kendra nodded, "I guess I'll be going then, give me a phone call when you're ready to spar again or if you just want to talk." She was moving to leave the office when a helicopter swept around the building. The windows shattered in a spray of glass and instinctively Kendra protected her face with her arms. She felt her head spinning, and barely had time to notice the device spewing out gas into the office before she passed out. When she came to, she was lying in a cage. She looked around; Demona occupied the cage next to hers. They exchanged glances and Kendra asked, "Quarrymen?"

Demona nodded, "Your cousin was none to happy to see you in my company."

Kendra shrugged, "He doesn't dictate the company I keep," she looked at the very small room that held the cages. The walls were made of metal and their edges were riveted to the room's structure. She could feel the floor vibrating and hear a loud droning sound. She frowned, she didn't like the conclusion she was drawing about what they might be inside, "Any idea where we are?"

Demona replied, "In the hold of a plane flying north. He mentioned it as he was frothing about cutting me to pieces and burying them in permafrost to make sure I die this time."

Kendra raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Good grief, isn't that a bit of overkill?"

Demona chuckled at the reply, "Just last week I would have been raging about this, but now I find I really don't care. I was seriously thinking of finding Macbeth and ending this once and for all anyway. I am sorry that you got caught up in this though."

"Macbeth," Kendra repeated uncertainly, "The Macbeth?"

The redheaded gargoyle snorted, "Yes the Macbeth," she answered sardonically. "The sorcery that gives me immortality also gives him immortality, we are bound together and only if we kill each other can we actually die."

Kendra took a few moments to absorb this surprising information, fitting it in with the history she already knew. "Well," she finally responded, "The play isn't over till the fat lady sings; still a lot of time to see what happens."

Demona shook her head at this baseless optimism, leaned back against the bars of her cell and closed her eyes. Kendra took the opportunity to start stretching the kinks out of her muscles. She braced herself against one side of the cage and tried shoving at the bars, try as she might she was unable to bend them. That failing she took a good look at the lock, it didn't take her long to give it up as a lost cause. She didn't know enough about electronics to figure out how to break it.

Finally bored she started yelling for someone to come down and talk to her, as Demona wasn't in a conversational mood. The immortal gargoyle stared at her as if she was crazed; Kendra paused and asked, "You're not in a conversational mood right?" Demona shook her head so Kendra resumed, "I'm bloody bored and she won't talk, so someone come down here and either feed or amuse me!"

Demona murmured, "Points for novelty, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone wanting to be amused when they were a prisoner."

Finally, the hatch to the cargo hold opened and Jon stepped thru it. Kendra cordially greeted him, "Hello Jon, how are you doing. Don't suppose you have some food or anything? I'm starving."

Jon glared at her angrily, "What were you doing with the demon?"

Kendra replied, "At the time of your attack? Leaving."

Jon cocked his head to the side at the answer, "Why were you there?"

Kendra grinned at him, "Martial arts workout, she's quite good as a sparring partner you know," she confided blithely.

Jon shook his head, "I would think you were lying, but I suspect you aren't. Sparring with the Demon sounds just crazy enough for you think it was a challenge. Tell me that you were there to spy on the monster and I'll believe you."

Kendra shook her head, "I can't say that Jon, I was there to find out more about her yes, but mostly because she's a great sparring partner."

Jon asked, "Were you planning on telling me what you found out?"

Kendra shook her head, "Nope."

Jon slumped, "Why did you even ask for information from me then."

Kendra looked at him, "Because I knew you had information about her that I didn't, and I wanted to know what it was."

Jon looked at Kendra curiously, "Why?"

Kendra stared at him, she didn't like tipping her hand like this but she didn't see much of a choice at this point. She replied, "Because she's as intelligent as you or I, yet some of her actions make no rational sense."

Demona glared at Kendra after that comment, but Jon and Kendra ignored her. Jon asked, "What do you mean? She's a demon of course she doesn't make sense."

Kendra shrugged, "That computer file she made, why even bother? It's not as if she couldn't remember the details, they weren't that complicated. I certainly would not have left anything like that lying around explaining in exact detail what I planned to do. And leaving it out where Robyn could easily find it…hell you and I know she called Robyn while she was down there stealing it , revealing that she knew full well where Robyn was, and then she practically told her she only had days to live."

Kendra paused for emphasis, "How much more obvious can you get, she did everything short of drawing a map and making step by step directions to make sure you guys knew where you were supposed to be and when you were supposed to be there. As I said her actions make no rational sense, why go through all that effort, all those centuries of collecting mystical artifacts, only to sabotage yourself in the end?" she asked. Kendra paused thoughtfully, "Unless perhaps you are insane and have an irrational reason," she turned and asked the redheaded gargoyle, "Are you insane?"

Demona studied Kendra intently before replying, "Perhaps, after listening to you I'm starting to wonder, I never really thought about why I made that file."

"No irrational rational reasons?" Kendra asked in a hopeful tone.

The redheaded gargoyle blinked once, "No." Demona hadn't recognized what Kendra was doing at first; she had almost been convinced the gas was still affecting her. Now she could see that Kendra was treating Jon Canmore in the same way she had treated Detective Maza when Demona first overheard them. Kendra's tone was consistently light and blithely unconcerned as if what were being discussed really didn't matter at all to her at all. She was toying with her cousin, and Demona could tell he thought Kendra was just being stupidly flippant. Demona couldn't really see what advantage it gave them except perhaps that Kendra was getting information from Jon that she wouldn't have if she had been more confrontational. The game Kendra was playing with him certainly didn't seem to be getting them any closer to freedom.

"Ah well," Kendra responded as if disappointed, then her expression brightened, "By the way I loved the statistical data at the end, perfect touch," she commented confidingly to the gargoyle.

Demona nodded, amused by the woman's performance despite the seriousness of the situation, "Thank you."

Jon was staring at the two of them with a bewildered expression, he shook his head, "Let me guess you have some big psychological reason why she did that."

Kendra shrugged, "I have no clue why she did that, it's one of the things I was curious about."

Jon stared at her for a long moment, obviously confused, and then he started yelling, "I don't care what you think, she's a demon and I'm going to make sure she's finally dead! She killed my father and laughed at us as she left, and she's the reason Jason is paralyzed! She must die for all the Canmore's she's killed."

Kendra stared at him, when he was finished she asked, "So does that mean I'm not getting any food?"

Jon paused, open mouthed at the non sequitur, "Food? Ah sure I think I have some food bars."

Kendra nodded, "I would appreciate that if you wouldn't mind." Jon stared hard at Kendra's cheerful face and then went back out.

Demona stared at Kendra, "Are you sure you're not related to Broadway?"

Kendra replied, "Who?" she sounded honestly puzzled.

Demona shook her head, "Never mind, and you were asking if I was insane."

Jon stepped through the hatch, tossed Kendra several food bars and some water. He turned without speaking and left, sealing the hatch behind him.

Kendra asked, holding up one of the bars, "You want one?"

Demona straightened, nodding. Kendra checked the covering for tampering both visually and by smell then tossed the gargoyle two of the bars while she began eating the others. "Let me know if you need some water we can toss the container back and forth," she mumbled through a mouthful. They ate the food bars and passed the water back and forth as needed. Kendra noted that Demona seemed to have come out of her funk somewhat even though she was still very quiet.

The hatch opened once again and Jon stepped inside. "I won't be going with you to your final destination; we will be landing soon and transferring you to another plane. Kendra you still have a chance to avoid sharing the Demon's fate, promise me that you will stay quiet about this and I will spare you," he said.

Kendra shook her head sadly, "Sorry Jon, I can't make that promise."

Jon pulled a gun and pointed it at her, "Kendra don't force me to kill you along with the Demon just say that you won't fight me and I'll make sure you get back alive."

Demona shouted, "You fool, take what he's offering and go back to New York! You barely know me. I am a demon, I destroy everything I touch. Please, don't add yourself to the list."

Kendra glanced at her once before turning back to her cousin, "Just put me on the same plane with Demona, Jon." With that she sat down and took a swig of water and proceeded to ignore her cousin who stood there pistol extended. Finally, he cursed, lowered his weapon and stomped out.

Demona hissed angrily, "Why are you doing this?"

Kendra replied evenly, "Because I don't know why you made that recording yet."

Demona stared at her, certain now that between the two of them, it wasn't she that was the insane one. "This is all because you don't understand why I did something!"

Kendra nodded, "It's been driving me crazy with curiosity, I can't stand not understanding and you're the only one who can give me an answer."

"Well it doesn't have to drive you any further your already there," Demona snapped. "Your curiosity is going to get you killed you silly fool."

Kendra smirked at her, "My choice."

Demona snarled at Kendra completely frustrated with her. She slumped down into the corner of the cage and was silent.

Kendra commented softly, "Besides I would have never forgiven myself if I had agreed to what he said and left you with them. I… care about what happens to you."

Demona turned and stared at her for a moment then shook her head and sighed, but said nothing in response. Kendra's desire not to leave her would not change anything except getting the human killed; something the woman seemed stubbornly unwilling to accept.

Finally, the plane landed and the two cages were unloaded. The smaller plane they were being loaded into did not have enough room for two cages so the Quarrymen tranquilized their two captives and put in the same cage. The two were still sedated when a sudden storm forced the plane down an about ninety minutes after takeoff and caused it to crash. Everyone on the plane died instantly.

Demona revived first, groaning and frozen, she looked dazedly at the interior of the wrecked plane. It took her a minute to regain her senses enough to realize that she was lying on top of Kendra; she pulled herself up off the woman and inspected the cage that held them. It had been damaged in the crash; on one side the hinges had been snapped. It only took her a few tries to widen the opening enough to pull herself out and then pull Kendra out as well.

Examining the woman she realized that Kendra was dead, there was no pulse and her body was cool to the touch. Cursing Demona leaned over and listened for a heartbeat, there was none. She held Kendra's body for a moment trying to ignore the sharp pangs of regret she felt over the woman's death. After a minute she slowly released Kendra's body and forced herself to start exploring the plane.

The three Quarrymen in the cockpit were crushed in the wreckage, the front of the plane having borne the brunt of the damage, only the rear of the plane where their cage had been was relatively undamaged. It was bitterly cold and the wind howled around the crashed plane swirling up ice and snow, it would be near impossible for her to fly in this she reluctantly decided, she would have to wait for the storm to end.

She returned to the rear of the plane, her gaze drawn unwillingly drawn to the body there. Foolish human, why hadn't Kendra listened to her when she told the woman to leave, she hadn't wanted this human to die. Movement drew her attention, and she stared unbelievingly. Kendra's hand twitched again, confused Demona knelt by the woman and felt for a pulse. She was certain there hadn't been one earlier, but now there was a pulse. It was weak, but it was definitely there.

Demona frantically began looking for blankets or anything she could use to warm the woman. Ripping through the storage compartments on either side of the hold she finally found a box of survival gear that had several of the silver survival blankets in it. She opened one and laid it on the floor then placed one against the wall. She sat down on the blanket and pulled Kendra into her arms then wrapped the other blankets around the both of them warming Kendra's body with her own. Demona was confused by the evidence that Kendra had the same ability to heal that she did, and elated to find out that Kendra was not actually dead. Slowly the woman warmed up, Demona finally saw her eyelashes flutter and her chest rise as she drew in a deeper breath.

Kendra started coughing and coughed up some blood then leaned back against Demona commenting hoarsely, "Ok dying sucks a lot, I can avoid doing that again." She shivered, and huddled gratefully against the warm body of the gargoyle and asked, "Did you die too?"

Demona replied, "Yes, however I recovered quicker than you did. I think you must have cushioned me so I wasn't as damaged as you." The immortal gargoyle paused, and then added, "I guess this was one of the things you weren't mentioning to me."

Kendra shrugged, "More like it was one of the things I suspected, I've never died before."

Demona said, "I gathered as much from your comment, and your right it does 'suck', each and every time."

Kendra said, "Thanks for warming me up, I don't suppose you found any food with the survival blankets?"

Demona chuckled, relieved, "Yes I found some more food bars." She asked, "Did you eat as much before or is it just something about planes that makes you hungry?"

"I always ate before I came over to spar," Kendra admitted. She added, "I have a high metabolism, it has something to do with my strength and ability to heal. After I eat we can figure out where we are and work on getting out of here." Kendra wrapped one of the blankets around her and went to raid the emergency rations.

While she was eating, she started searching the back of the plane for anything they could use, making a pile of the items she found in the middle of the floor. After a few moments of watching what she was doing, Demona joined her in the search. The hold wasn't very big, so it didn't take the two of them very long to search every corner, when they finished the pile of useful items was distressingly small.

Kendra had found her gym bag and her wallet during the search, as well as of all things Dominique's purse. "They wanted it to look like a theft?" she offered hesitantly as she handed the purse over to Demona.

The gargoyle opened the purse, drew out her wallet and opened it, she growled, "The vermin stole the cash I was carrying. At least they didn't take my IDs or credit cards." She dropped the purse next to the pile, "I'll see what I can find up front," Demona snarled before turning and leaving the hold.

Kendra stared after her for a moment, then grabbing a backpack; she started packing the items they wouldn't need immediately. They had found one complete set of winter survival gear that Kendra thought would fit Dominique. She set them to the side along with the cargo webbing and restraining straps she had found. While the Demona was searching the front of the plane she began working on putting the webbing and straps together to make a harness.

Demona returned holding what looked like folded maps, cash, and three handguns. The gargoyle placed the weapons by the backpack, put the cash in her wallet with a satisfied look, and then unfolded the maps and laid them side by side on the floor. "I found the flight map and a topographical map; between the two hopefully we can figure out where we are. I also found these on the Quarrymen," she indicated the handguns. "They should prove useful; unfortunately I didn't find any extra ammunition for them."

Kendra nodded, the weapons would help, but right now she was more interested in figuring out exactly where they were, and where they needed to go. "Quebec," She muttered in surprise, following the flight path out of New York and all the way to the very tip of the Canadian providence almost to the ocean. She blinked, "I guess he wasn't kidding about the permafrost." She pointed at a small marked town on the map, "This must be where we changed planes."

"Alma," Demona read, the gargoyle shook her head, "I don't know anything about that town. I've been to Canada several times for business, but never in this area."

Kendra glanced at the watch on her wrist, "Its three fifteen am, this is the same night, right? You don't think we lost a day?" Kendra asked staring at the map.

Demona answered, "No, we weren't out for that long." The gargoyle stared at the flight map as well, understanding now why Kendra was asking. "It would take a prop airplane three hours to fly from New York to Alma, and it probably took them an hour or so to get us to an airport from my office. We didn't spar so it would have been around six thirty when we were taken, so we arrived in Alma around ten or eleven perhaps."

"And this plane is smaller than that one was, so it's probably slower as well," Kendra said thoughtfully. "How long do you think we were…dead."

The redhead frowned, "I don't know, I don't know how injured we were. At least an hour I would think, more likely two hours."

Kendra reached into a pocket of the backpack and pulled out a pencil she had found, "So if the plane went down an hour or two after we left," she made two marks on the flight path, "Between here and here?" she questioned.

Demona reluctantly nodded. She watched as Kendra folded the flight map and laid it on top of the topographical map and then made matching marks upon it. Between those two marks was where they thought they were located. It depended however on whether or not the storm that had downed the plane had also pushed them off the marked flight path. "It will take us a week or more to walk to the nearest town," her talon trailed down the map to the nearest marked city. "We will have to travel at night when I can withstand the cold in my true form, and find shelter during the day to keep warm. We were lucky they had that survival gear for you to wear."

Kendra shook her head, "It will be better if we wait a few hours and give the storm time to pass. We can travel during the day, Dominique can wear the winter clothes, hopefully with those and some blankets you will be ok out in the wind." Kendra was working on a complicated looking set of straps and webbing as she spoke.

Demona stared at Kendra, disbelievingly, "And what will you wear? Your leather outfit is quite nice, but not suited to this environment."

Kendra chuckled, "I still have one surprise left and I'm not revealing it till after you switch into your day form." Kendra put down the makeshift harness she had been working on and crawled back into the nest of blankets the gargoyle had made while trying to warm her. She closed her eyes wanting to get some rest before starting the long cold trek. She could feel the gargoyles stare and half expected the redhead to insist that she explain herself, so she was surprised when she felt the blankets around her move. When Demona settled in next to her she finally opened her eyes and looked over at the gargoyle sitting next to her. She knew the redhead wasn't cold, the gargoyle had said she didn't feel the cold earlier.

"It will be easier for you to stay warm," was all Demona offered as an explanation.

Kendra scooted closer to the warm body next to her, "Thanks."

Demona shifted slowly into a more comfortable position so as not to wake the woman who slept so soundly against her. She really didn't know why she hadn't insisted that Kendra stop playing games and tell her exactly why the woman thought they could travel during the day. What was this last secret that Kendra so gleefully kept to herself, and why was she indulging the woman by allowing it? Noticing the Kendra's hair had fallen onto the woman's face she reached over and gently combed it back. In sleep Kendra's expression was softer than Demona had ever seen it; she stared for a moment taking in the dusky skin, the long sweep of eyelashes. _She is beautiful for a human_, her mind whispered. After a moment the immortal gargoyle rested her head back against the side of the plane, she might as well try to get some sleep too.

Kendra jerked abruptly awake upon hearing Demona scream in pain as she changed into Dominique. As soon as the change was complete, Kendra handed her the cold weather gear and insisted she put it on before she lost too much body heat. Dominique looked at her curiously and didn't argue with her. Whatever Kendra was keeping secret that she believed would allow them both to escape this frozen wasteland during the day would doubtless be revealed very soon.

Kendra handed Dominique the harness she had made, "Ok this is a harness to hold you on my back, make sure its snug around my chest and waist so you won't slip. You should be able to hang your legs through these loops and hold on here. I still can't figure out how to get a blanket wrapped around you at the same time, but maybe that will become clear once this is on me."

Immediately after finishing these strange directions, Kendra took off her jacket and began to undress, packing her clothes in the backpack as she removed them. Dominique blinked, "What are you doing, it's below freezing," she asked astonished.

Kendra grinned, "Getting my own fur coat." With that strange comment, she cried out in her own pain as her skin darkened and her body size increased, within a minute a huge stocky black cat shook itself and looked at Dominique with sapphire blue eyes.

Dominique whispered, "Kendra?" questioningly, her mind unable for a second or two to accept what she had just seen.

The cat nodded then pawed the harness that Dominique had dropped in her shock.

Dominique recovered quickly, "Well this explains a few things," she murmured as she stared at the huge black cat that was more than half as tall as she was. _No wonder I felt something the first time we met, _she thought_, somehow I knew this was in my office_, she thought. She picked up the webbing and straps that Kendra had put together, it hadn't made sense to her when the woman had been making it, but now it did. She laid the webbing across the cats back and adjusted it so that it hung evenly on either side of her torso, and then began tightened the straps until the harness was snug. "Is this too tight?" she asked. Kendra shook her head. "Pinch or bind?" Again another shake. "Good," Demona murmured focusing now on the problem of how to keep the survival blanket around her while upon her unexpected mount.

She picked up one of the blankets and cut four slits along two of its sides and placed it over the webbing, she would slip her hands and legs thru these. Dominique picked up the backpack and swung it onto her back. Kendra crouched down making it easier for the redhead to get upon her back, once there Dominique adjusted the blanket and grasped the webbing firmly. Feeling the woman settle into place, Kendra trotted out of the plane. The two halted once they were outside, eyes squinting in the bright glare of sun on snow.

There was nothing in sight except the snow and ice covered plain they had crashed upon as far as either could see. Dominique pulled out the compass and pointed south, she shouted over the wind, "That way is south." Kendra dipped her head in acknowledgement and started trotting at a ground-eating lope. Dominique concentrated on pulling the blanket closer around her to block out the wind. She stared at the ground passing rapidly underneath Kendra's paws and began to think that they would actually make it out of this mess. Relaxing into the movement of the cat beneath her she buried her face into the thick black coat and let herself sink into a light sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 6**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/10/08

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Kendra concentrated on covering as much ground as possible, her thick coat helped keep her warm, but she was built for the tropics not the arctic, and she felt the chill wind keenly. The constant exercise helped, but she kept scanning the horizon hoping to see indications of the forest she knew was somewhere south of where they crashed. It might not be warmer once she reached the forest, but at least the trees should cut the wind. After an hour, she saw a green line emerge in the distance and she picked up her pace. This was promising; if she were seeing a forest this soon it meant they were in the southern area of the oval she had marked on the map. She had been afraid that they were in the northern part and had several hours of snow covered terrain to travel, but thankfully that didn't seem to be the case. 

It was another hour before she finally entered the forest and she paused to sniff the wind as she did so. She smelt pine, resinous and sharp, earth scents mixed with the scent of snow, but little of the musky scents that indicated animal life. She guessed that she needed to continue traveling south to find any. She needed to get further away from the snow covered plain where there was little food for large game to live upon before finding something large enough for her to hunt.

Kendra felt Dominique stir upon her back, "A forest," the redhead whispered, "We're further south then."

It was the same conclusion Kendra had drawn, and she could hear the same relief that she had felt in Dominique's voice. The redhead said nothing more and Kendra picked up her pace once again, threading her way between the sparse trees with ease. Two hours later, she smelt a new scent upon the wind, one she recognized with ease. There were deer here. She needed to go hunting; the food bars she had eaten earlier were long since gone and her stomach was letting her know it needed meat and lots of it if she wanted to remain in cat form for any length of time.

The area they were in was hilly, and she could see the occasional outcropping of what looked like limestone. With this type of terrain, Kendra felt there was a good chance she could find a cave for Dominique to shelter within while she went hunting. It took some time before she spotted what she had been searching for, a shadowed opening in a hillside underneath an overhand of rock that turned out to indeed be the opening of a small cave. Dominique stirred as she felt her stopping and sat up looking around.

"Why have we stopped?" she asked and Kendra pawed at the cave entrance and shook gently. Dominique asked, "You want me to get down so we can go in there?"

Kendra dipped her head in a nod. Dominique climbed stiffly down from her back and followed her into the cavern, ducking underneath the low entrance. Kendra inhaled deeply, she could smell nothing besides stone and dirt, there was no indication that anything was currently living within. She padded deeper into the short cavern and looked around verifying that it had no inhabitants.

Dominique was looking around at the cavern, glad to be out of the wind, "Should I gather firewood, are we staying long enough?" she asked.

Kendra nodded and pulled at the straps, looking imploringly at Dominique. Dominique figured out what she wanted and came over and took off the straps. She asked, "Why don't you just change back?"

Kendra shook her head and laboriously dragged a paw through the dirt and spelt out hunt. Dominique nodded, "You're going out hunting, be careful and let me know it's you before you enter the cave. I'll keep the handgun by my side in case someone besides you feels like joining me."

Kendra coughed in amusement, ducked her head in acknowledgement, then turned and left.

She lifted her muzzle scenting the deer again and started working her way closer to the resting herd, carefully keeping downwind of them. As she got closer, she crouched down and crept towards the deer. They were larger than the ones at home, but she was confident she could take one down. She picked out an older male lying on the outside of the herd and crept up as close as she was able then sprang onto the animal's back. The deer was only able to cry out once before Kendra seized its head in her mouth and bore down, driving her incisors through the top of its skull and killing it instantly.

The other deer lurched to their feet and scattered terrified. Kendra ripped open the belly of the deer and instinctively searched out the fattest organs to consume immediately. Once she had sated her immediate hunger, she seized the carcass by the neck and began dragging it towards the cave. It took her a good fifteen minutes to drag it that far, but she finally dropped the carcass near the cavern and looked around for Dominique.

The redhead stepped out of the cavern and approached cautiously asking, "Is it alright if I take some of the meat?"

Kendra moved away from the deer, understanding that the other woman thought she might be possessive of her kill.

Kendra waited till Dominique had cut several strips from the animals flank and wrapped them in a square of hide from the animal before she returned and began feeding on the carcass. She gorged herself eating as much as she could as Dominique gathered wood for a fire. Once her stomach was full, she seized the carcass once again by the neck and awkwardly pulled it after her as she climbed a nearby tree and slung it over a branch out of the reach of other predators.

Then she leapt back down and noticed Dominique watching her. She padded over and started trying to spell water with her paw, but Dominique looked at the W and said, "Water?"

Kendra nodded and Dominique said, "Wait for me, I could use some water as well and we should fill up the canteens."

Kendra waited; when Dominique came back, she was carrying the two canteens they had found on the plane. Kendra led the way to where she had found a stream while tracking the herd of deer. The stream was small but deep and Kendra plunged in her muzzle and drank deeply. Then she walked out into the stream and ducked her head underneath the water letting the swiftly flowing water wash away the blood from her kill. She lifted her head again; snorting to clear her nostrils of water then sat down and rolled over one way and then back again before standing. She padded back out of the stream. Dominique was staring at her warily. Kendra coughed in amusement and moved away from the redhead before vigorously shaking the water out of her fur. If it had been warmer she would have considered it, but it was too cold to get the woman wet.

When they got back to the cave, Dominique knelt beside the fire she had started earlier and checked the venison strips she had placed upon a rock in the coals. They were finally cooked enough to eat. Kendra laid down by the fire with a deep sigh as Dominique began eating. The redhead stared at her dozing companion thoughtfully; exactly how Kendra had killed the deer had not escaped her notice. One sharp powerful bite though the skull, that along with the color and body shape made her certain that Kendra's cat form was that of a jaguar.

Dominique was still confused, however, as to what exactly what her companion could be. She had initially assumed that Kendra was a human appearing mutate, but that was obviously not true. Above human strength while human, rapid healing and immortality, and the ability to change into a larger than normal jaguar, even with these three pieces of information Dominique had no clear idea how these things fit together. Nor did she have an idea how Kendra had changed into a cat while using neither magic nor sorcery.

Dominique finished eating and moved over to sit next to Kendra, wrapping herself in the blankets for warmth. She tentatively rested a hand on Kendra's back and when huge cat didn't object Dominique began running her fingers through the thick fur. Kendra stretched and started purring contentedly. Dominique smiled at this and continued running her hand along Kendra's back. No, she had no idea what Kendra was so she would simply have to ask when she next had the opportunity she resolved. The redhead didn't realize when she fell asleep, but she woke near nightfall surprised to find that she had been using Kendra as a pillow while she slept.

When Dominique woke, Kendra woke as well. As soon as the redhead moved from where she had been lying upon her, Kendra padded to the mouth of the cave and looked out smelling the air inquisitively. A muffled painful cry had her rushing back into the cavern before realizing that what she had heard was Demona's form change. Demona was wrapping her wings around herself when Kendra entered the cavern. The gargoyle stared at the cat curiously as Kendra moved nearer the fire and then began her painful return to her human shape.

Demona came over and rested a taloned hand on Kendra's shoulder once the woman was fully human again, "Your shape change is more painful than mine I believe," she said softly.

Kendra gasped, "It's much more painful from jaguar to human than from human to jaguar. I think it has something to do with it being easier to increase mass than decrease it though I can't figure out why that would be, it seems as if it would be more logical the other way around." In another few seconds, the pain went away and Kendra was able to roll over and stand.

She paused to examine herself and Demona asked, "Checking to see if you missed anything?"

Kendra grinned at her, "Yes actually, I always think I'm going to forget something." Kendra sighed, "I'm still tired, do you mind if I nap a few hours. I'm not really used to napping in jaguar form, but I didn't want to change back until after sunset just in case something decided to attack us."

Demona nodded, "The nights are longer this far north. We have enough time for you to sleep for a few hours." Demona grinned at Kendra as she lay back down and snuggled into the blankets, never seeming to notice that she had been nude the entire time. Unlike most humans Kendra didn't seem to have much of a nudity taboo, at least not around the gargoyle she didn't, not that Demona minded the woman's body was all sleek muscle and feminine curves. Demona didn't choose to admit the fact that she perhaps appreciated Kendra's body far more than someone who hated humans was supposed to.

The redheaded gargoyle sighed, wondering what the fools at her company were doing. With any luck they assumed that the two of them had been kidnapped instead of killed, and were being properly careful with her company thinking of her wrath if they should bungle things too badly. She sat down beside Kendra's sleeping form and slipped under the blankets with her. The air in the cave was not as cold as it had been on the plane, but it was still very cold. Kendra sighed in her sleep and snuggled against the gargoyles side. Demona tensed then slowly relaxed as Kendra settled back into a deep sleep. The redhead gazed at Kendra's sleeping form and thought of the woman's words to her cousin on the plane.

The entire episode had a surreal quality that had begun with Kendra demanding that someone come and amuse her because Demona didn't want to chat. The gargoyle had to chuckle as the remembered some of the odd things Kendra had said and done while playing with her cousin. Of course, some of the things Kendra had said were not so amusing, such as her questions about the virus and Demona's plan to exterminate the humans.

Demona frowned to herself, thinking,_ Kendra was right, why did I ever make that tape, and having made it, why make it so easy for Robyn Canmore to find? I knew who she was all along and hired her anyway, and then I took her to meet Dr. Sevarius and opened the vault right in front of her making sure she saw all the pieces of my plan including the disk. A disk that was not even lying flat on the shelf, but which I put into a holder almost as if I wanted it to draw attention to itself. I don't think that I knew Robyn was stealing the disk when I spoke with her, but I did know she was there and that she had no reason to be in the laboratory at that time. I should have came in and checked, I should have been suspicious, but it didn't cross my mind and It really should have. Kendra was right, why didn't I just deliver a map and directions to Robyn Canmore, it would have been easier._" Demona looked down at the woman curled up at her side, "Perhaps you are right, I am insane and just haven't realized it," she whispered.

The immortal gargoyle's thoughts drifted to what Kendra had said to her when Jon had left, that she could not have lived with herself if she had accepted her cousin's offer that she cared for Demona. Kendra may have suspected she could survive dying, but she had not known for certain, yet she had been willing to risk it to stay by Demona's side. Demona wasn't certain what she felt about that, she should probably feel angry or scornful, but with the failure of her most recent plan the thought that Kendra was willing to risk dying to stay with her was… well she wasn't sure what she was feeling, but it definitely wasn't anger and it certainly wasn't scorn.

Demona leaned back against the cave wall absorbed in her thoughts; most recent in her mind was the recent plan that could have gone even more horribly wrong than it had. Why had she ever trusted that Assassin, she could have gotten her daughter killed. What type of a mother was she that she had led her daughter into such a dangerous situation? She sighed and stared unseeing at the sky visible outside the cavern and absently began to stroke Kendra's back.

Demona was half dozing still slowly running a taloned hand up and down Kendra's back when she froze and then removed her hand guiltily. Kendra's breathing had changed and she had moaned softly. Demona frowned to herself thinking that she really shouldn't have been touching Kendra like that knowing that the woman was attracted to her. Hopefully the dark-haired woman would go back to sleep.

However, such was not to be; Kendra began writhing slowly obviously deep in the throws of a sensual dream. Demona blushed, but fascinated couldn't help but watch. She was amazed to hear Kendra moan "Demona, yes… oh… yes…oh… please." The last come out in a begging tone. The gargoyle tore her eyes away realized she really should wake the woman, but she didn't and her eyes returned to Kendra's form realizing what she was dreaming from the crossed arms over her head. Demona couldn't seem to stop her gaze from taking in the soft wanting look on Kendra's face, the dusky skin that covered smooth strong muscles along the now bared shoulders and arms, the way her hair spread… Demona tore her gaze away once again her own breathing becoming ragged and shook her head, what was wrong with her she was actually becoming aroused watching and thinking of Kendra's plea.

Kendra suddenly arched and lowered her head baring the back of her neck and drawing Demona's gaze again and whimpered, "oh… yes… so good. Yes… harder…oh please… yes," the black haired woman's tone lowered into a demanding hiss, "bite me…"

Demona realized she had to leave the cavern, the smell of Kendra's arousal was strong in the air and she was beginning to seriously consider what might happen if she turned the woman's dream into reality. The gargoyle managed to slide out of the blankets, stealing one as she left. Standing just outside the cavern mouth, she tried to persuade herself that she didn't want to go back inside, press Kendra down into the blankets, and claim the woman as she was so sweetly begging. From within the cavern she heard Kendra cry out, "Oh yes, oh," There was pause as if Kendra had drawn in a breath, then, "Demona," the last carried such tones of pleasure that it was obvious to the gargoyle what had occurred. Demona closed her eyes, her mind replaying that last passionate cry, and then opened them on a shaky breath.

What was wrong with her, she knew it was normal for some humans to be attracted to their own gender and it certainly didn't bothered her, but she had never been attracted to a female before and definitely never to a human. She lashed her tail, feeling the unmistakable tension within her body, there was no denying it, she was aroused, aroused by the thought of claiming a human woman. She already knew part of what was affecting her, she had identified it days ago, Demona smirked remembering, though then she had hardly know exactly how wild Kendra could be. She could easily admit to herself that the thought of such an obviously powerful and strong woman wanting to be dominated by her was very arousing in and of itself. The second reason though was less easy to admit to, she was lonely and feeling unlovable and here was this beautiful woman dreaming passionate dreams about her…

Suddenly she heard, "Oh shit, you stupid idiot, damn what have I done."

Demona stepped back into the cavern saying, "Kendra it's alright, I'm here." Kendra blushed deeply at the sight of her and Demona said, "You didn't offend me, I just needed to step outside for a moment."

Kendra looked unsure, "You're not mad at me."

Demona shook her head, "I'm not mad at you." Demona said, "I'm going to pull the rest of that deer down from where you hung it earlier and see what meat is left on it. We should probably take everything we can strip off of it with us." With that, she left.

Kendra stared after the gargoyle amazed that Demona hadn't appeared to be even slightly angry with her for daring to dream about her the way she had. The flame-haired gargoyle had been unsettled perhaps, but not angry. Kendra cocked her head to the side as she considered Demona's reaction and allowed herself to wonder if the attraction she felt was not entirely one sided. She sighed, right now though wasn't the time, they needed to cover as many miles as they could tonight before dawn changed Demona to her human form. Kendra changed into her jaguar form and shook herself, relieved to feel the mental turmoil and sexual tension drain away with the transformation. As a jaguar she was less emotional, and without hesitation she exited the cave to watch while Demona striped the rest of the meat from the carcass and wrapped it in one of the survival blankets.

Demona asked, "Do you mind carrying the backpack and meat?"

Kendra shook her head and led the way back into the cavern. There Demona fastened the harness to her and lashed down the backpack and meat firmly to make sure they would not shift.

Demona unfolded the topographical map and laid it on the floor of the cavern, "I believe we are in this area," she pointed at the map with a taloned finger, then trailed it south to the nearest marked water, "We will head south and hopefully in a few hours find this river. We can follow it downstream and cross here before morning if I am correct about our current location."

Kendra nodded and loped out of the cavern, with one last look Demona left as well and climbed up the cliff to get some height then glided away with Kendra following. They made good time to the river and started following it downstream. Demona stopped occasionally and stared at the map intently. Finally, they found the ford marked on the map and Demona smiled, it was the correct river, they knew where they were. Of course, where they were was out in the middle of nowhere and with no human habitation marked on the map for hundreds of miles, but at least now they knew where in the middle of nowhere they were.

Demona estimated that they could easily travel 40 or maybe 50 miles a day with the long winter nights. If they could both hold that pace, they would reach a sizable town within five days. She decided to continue following the river, which ran due south and motioned to Kendra to come over. When Kendra padded over next to her and was looked at the map curiously, Demona pointed to where they were, "This is where we are now, and this is where I would like to get to before morning. Do you think we can travel that far?" Kendra looked at the map and shrugged. Demona said, "Well let's see how far we can get." Kendra nodded and waited for Demona to find a tree to climb and become airborne then followed the gargoyle.

A few hours before dawn, they passed the point that Demona had wanted to achieve. An hour later the gargoyle started looking for a suitable place for them to rest during the day. She spotted a likely looking deadfall and waited for Kendra to arrive then asked in a low voice, "Smell anything?"

Kendra sniffed, there was something here, but she wasn't certain what it might be, as she couldn't get enough of a scent. She cautiously approached the deadfall, and getting a better scent stopped and hissed, the hair along her back and tail instinctively rising. She moved to block Demona and shook her head.

Demona asked, "I don't see anything what are you smelling?" Kendra pawed out a clear patch of ground and started spelling snake out. Demona caught on as she was starting on the k and said "Snakes, I understand, no I guess I don't want to share a deadfall with snakes. Do you have any suggestions?

Kendra nodded, and led the way to a spot in the forest that she had noticed earlier. A large tree had died years earlier creating the opportunity for younger trees to take its place. Now the area had several seven and eight foot saplings growing within it. Kendra began to rip the ones in the center out of the ground. Demona moved to help her looking at her curiously as they cleared a small circle out of the middle of the saplings.

Kendra glanced around and sniffed to make sure there were no enemies near and changed to human. Shivering she got her clothes out of the backpack and began putting them on while explaining to Demona, "Bend down the remaining saplings and tie them at the top to form the supports for a shelter, I'll help as soon as I get dressed. We can use the pine branches to insulate the sides and block the wind." They prepared the shelter and then laid out the survival blankets on the inside. Demona used her claws to dig a deep hole in the cold ground for a fire pit while Kendra gathered wood and started a fire going.

It was almost dawn when Demona crawled into the shelter to transform; she dressed and emerged as Dominique. She grumbled at Kendra, "Go warm up you're shivering in those clothes, I'll finish putting something together for us to eat." Kendra nodded gratefully and went into the shelter and huddled under the survival blankets until she warmed up and fell asleep. Dominique entered the shelter an hour later with a bowl of warm plain stewed venison and woke her up long enough to eat. The redhead then slipped under the blankets with her and did not protest when Kendra pulled her into a loose embrace sharing her body heat.

They both slept into the afternoon, when Kendra woke and stretched, being careful not to waken the red headed woman sleeping peacefully in her arms. Kendra pulled Dominique closer and savored the feeling of the woman in her arms, feeling very protective of her. It was amazing to Kendra how she felt different about each of Demona's forms, she wanted to be dominated by Demona, and she wanted to make tender gentle love to Dominique. Though she suspected she would have no objections to either of Demona's forms wanting to dominate her, she thought with a small grin.

After the two dreams she was finally willing to admit that maybe it would be nice to not always be the strong one in a relationship. Maybe it would be nice to let someone else… ok who was she kidding… let Demona take control of the relationship… and of her… at least occasionally. Demona aroused her so very powerfully because Demona was stronger than she was and was physically able to dominate her. That was something her human ex-lovers had not been capable of doing, and now she wondered if perhaps that was one of the things she had been missing in her past relationships.

Suddenly she noticed Dominique was awake and looking at her with an arched eyebrow. The redhead asked, "Do you ever think of anything besides sex?"

Kendra flushed, "Food?"

Dominique began laughing, "Are you sure you're not a male in disguise?"

Kendra sat up and whipped up her shirt and looked down at her breasts and then back at Dominique, "Yep, I'm sure I'm not a guy."

Dominique looked at Kendra's exposed breasts and said in a breathless voice, "No I guess you're not." She tore her eyes away from the dusky swells. "You really don't have much of a problem with nudity do you, that's unusual for a human."

Kendra lowered her shirt, "I'm sorry I just feel comfortable around you, but I shouldn't have done that. I'm too impulsive sometimes, a thought comes into my head that seems funny and sometimes I just follow along without thinking."

She looked sad and impulsively Dominique hugged her, "No it's alright I'm getting used to it actually, and I think I would miss the surprises if you stopped. I'm glad you're comfortable enough with me to do things like that. You have a wicked sense of humor and I quite enjoy it."

Dominique relaxed her hold, but remained leaning against Kendra enjoying the feel of resting against the black haired woman. She knew she should draw away, but her own desire was rising with the contact. The sound of Kendra crying out her name was replaying in her head and she could no longer deny that she wanted to hear that cry again, something inside her hungered for it. Dominique was used to getting what she wanted, and right now she wanted Kendra, but Kendra was human or part human and the part of her that hated humans just couldn't believe she would actually consider sex with one of them.

While she was thinking, Kendra shifted position, resting her head in the hollow of Dominique's shoulder. The redhead's racing thoughts derailed at the feel of Kendra tucking her head into her shoulder; the move was so trusting and invoked a protective feeling in Dominique as well as causing her heart rate to increase. The redhead growled softly, she had the overwhelming desire to push Kendra down to the floor and… Dominique tried to reign in her thoughts and think rationally, she wasn't sure that she wanted a… relationship with Kendra. She wasn't sure that she didn't either, she was only sure that she wanted to stroke her fingers over the dusky skin she had seen so much of, wanted to test the texture and feel of all of it. She wanted Kendra to call out her name in passion for real, not to a dream lover. Damn it… this desire was overwhelming and it wasn't as if Kendra was completely human.

Dominique said trying to keep her voice from betraying her need, "I've never been with a female before, but I would like to make love to you Kendra. I'm just not sure how ready for a relationship I am right now, and I don't want to lose you as a friend."

Dominique waited and Kendra looked up at her in surprise, "Casual is fine, I've never really had a serious relationship…" Kendra trailed off looking uncertain for a moment then looked into Dominique's eyes and saw the raw need there.

Dominique leaned closer to Kendra and tentatively kissed her, then deepened the kiss as she felt the black-haired woman shift toward her. Kendra leaned at first forward expecting to take the lead, but Dominique resisted, leaning forward and pushing Kendra back onto the floor of their shelter instead. Dominique pulled back and looked intently at Kendra and then started unbuttoning the black-haired woman's shirt baring the breasts that she had gazed at earlier in desire. She reached out and touched the dusky skin, noting the paleness of her hand against it, then began stroking the soft swells pleased when Kendra's soft moans and the way she arched her back made it clear that she appreciated how this felt. The dusky rose tips she had noticed earlier were stiff with arousal, she leaned over to take the nearest one in her mouth.

"Yes," hissed Kendra arching into the contact.

The Kendra's fingers combed restlessly through her red mane as Dominique teased and tormented. Eventually she kissed her way back up to Kendra's neck claimed the full lips in a possessive kiss while trailing one hand down the woman's stomach and unbuttoning and unzipping the leather pants she wore. Kendra groaned and pulled off her own pants and under clothes and shrugging out of her shirt leaving herself totally nude. Dominique pulled the blankets over the both of them and resumed her explorations of Kendra's body.

Dominique was surprised at her own excitement and desire, she had thought Thailog had excited her, but the thought of having Kendra writhing under her in passion drove all thoughts of the cloned male away. Then there was the fact that Kendra seemed to be afflicted with a fine quiver, at first the redhead was confused by the occasional trembling, but a look at Kendra's face made it clear that the trembles were definitely not caused by fear. Dominique's last doubts melted away at this evidence of exactly how much Kendra desired her touch, and each uncontrollable quiver that ran along Kendra's body just increased the redhead's desire to possess the black-haired woman.

Later…

"Demona," Kendra cried out her name in the same tone as she had during her dream, a rush of possessive satisfaction surged through the redheaded woman at the sound, and then she had to hold onto the black-haired woman tightly as she arched and shuddered in her pleasure. Several more followed, as Dominique did not ceasing her tormenting touch until she felt Kendra was finally exhausted. Dominique gazed into the sapphire blue eyes and was satisfied with the almost drugged look the woman had as well as the obvious total relaxation in her body.

She pulled the blankets over both of them and rested Kendra's head on her shoulder, watching as Kendra fell into a doze, her face relaxed and a smile upon her lips. Dominique still felt her own arousal, but hearing Kendra cry out her name as she came had filled some deep need in her, leaving her feeling relaxed and satisfied despite her arousal. She could wait for Kendra to recover.

She smiled down at the relaxed woman in her arms, then as a thought surfaced she shook her head, she still had not asked Kendra how she was able to change into a jaguar. Dominique smirked; there would be time later after more important things were taken care of to ask her questions. Relaxing into the warm body of the woman in her arms, the redhead's eyes closed dozed as well.

Kendra stirred a short time later still feeling languorous in the afterglow of their first lovemaking. For someone who said she had never made love to a woman before Dominique had been amazing. She shifted until the dozing redhead was lying on the silver blanket and carefully removed the halter top Dominique was wearing. Kendra lowered her lips and set about gently waking her lover. She could tell exactly when Dominique woke from the change in her breathing and from the arms that came up and wrapped around her.

"Kendra," said Dominique softly then, "that feels so good." Dominique arched slightly pressing her breast harder against Kendra's mouth and Kendra stroked her free hand down Dominique's body snagging her one remaining piece of clothing and removing it.

Later…

Dominique buried her face in Kendra's shoulder, "That felt wonderful," she sighed.

Kendra smiled, "Your welcome, and thank you for earlier, for someone who hadn't been with a woman before you were quite amazing."

Dominique smirked, "I've always been a quick learner."

"Lucky me," Kendra commented sincerely.

The redhead chuckled, sniffing the air she commented, "It smells like an orgy in here, and we stink."

Kendra smiled and stretched lazily, "Well there is a reason for that," she commented smugly as she sat up and moved toward the loose pine branches that covered what functioned as the door of their makeshift shelter. She pushed the branches aside and poked her head cautiously outside glancing around to make sure nothing had decided to be curious about the noises emanating from the shelter. The air had gotten quite a lot warmer than it had been she noticed, no wonder the cold hadn't been that bothersome while they made love. Kendra leaned forward and grabbed one of the pots from the backpack. She filled it with water and set to heating on the coals from the fire, then she scooted back into the shelter and snuggled beside Dominique, "Ten minutes or so till we have lukewarm water."

The redhead turned and rested her head upon Kendra's chest sighing contentedly; a passing thought had her green eyes narrowing. She pulled away, supporting herself on her elbow, "This seems like a good time to ask you how exactly you transform into a jaguar, you don't use any magic or sorcery, or if you do you don't use a kind that I recognize," she commented curious.

"Ah," Kendra murmured, "That is a bit of a tale, and to be honest with you I don't really have a good understanding of exactly why it works."

Dominique could see the bafflement in Kendra's blue eyes, "Perhaps if you explain it to me I might have an idea, I've studied sorcery for almost a thousand years now, and I've searched for knowledge about every other type of magic as well. There is a good chance I might know something, or have an idea where we could find more information," she offered.

The black-haired woman looked at her hopefully, "That would be nice. I guess the place to start is at the very beginning…" Kendra related how she had come upon the jaguar in the temple; how she had climbed down to free it only to have it free itself. How she had lost consciousness and had woken up covered in blood, but unhurt and the jaguar gone. "Does that mean something to you?" Kendra asked seeing the thoughtful frowning look on Dominique's face.

The redhead shook her head slowly, "I'm not certain, perhaps…you were able to turn into a jaguar after that?" she asked.

"No, not immediately," Kendra responded, "First there were the dreams…" she described how she had dreamed of becoming a jaguar, how in her dreams she learned how to submerge her human form within the body of the jaguar and how to submerge the jaguar within her human form. "The night of the full moon when I first transformed for real…was terrifying for me, but it was also exhilarating. The night, the scents, the world was so much more than I ever could have imagined," Kendra finished wonderingly.

"Shamanism?" Dominique offered hesitantly, "I was never able to find a practitioner, and there is very little written about it that is more than hypothesis and conjecture. What little information I found mentioned animal spirit guides and the shamanic practitioner's ability to transform into the shape of their spirit guide." Those were not the only two pieces of information she knew, but those were the two characteristics that applied right now.

Kendra frowned, "But I've never met any animal spirit guide," she said, disappointed.

Dominique laid a comforting hand on her chest, "As I said what I found was mostly conjecture, that part might not be correct. When we get home I will show you what books I have, and we can look for more information. I'm sure that between the two of us we can figure out how you got your abilities."

"Thank you," Kendra's blue eyes warmed at Dominique's promise of help. She leaned forward and tenderly kissed the redhead, reluctantly pulling back from temptation she said, "The water should be warm now and I know we need to get ready to go soon."

They washed the essential parts, dressed and Dominique fixed more warm food for the both of them. It was almost nightfall; Kendra sighed and looked with fondness at the shelter where they had made love. They hoped to make 50 mile or so traveling due south before stopping two hours before sunrise. Demona didn't like stopping so early, but there was no meat left and they would need the time to hunt. She turned and waited for Demona to glide off it was time to leave this place.


	7. Chapter 7

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 7**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/13/08

* * *

Elisa leaned exhausted against the wall of the elevator watching the floor numbers increase as it rose from the ground floor of the Eyrie building to the upper floors where the castle entrance was located. When the doors opened, she took the hallway and then the steps leading out to the upper battlements. Goliath and the others should be returning from their nightly patrol soon and she had new information on the investigation into Demona's disappearance two days ago.

She leaned against the stone parapet and looked out over the city, it was a clear cold night and she could see the twinkling of the city lights for miles around. She scanned the skyline impatiently and was finally rewarded when she saw the outlines of five gargoyles against the dark sky. Undoubtedly, Hudson was sitting in his armchair watching TV while the younger gargoyles patrolled.

"Elisa," Goliath greeted her as he landed, the other four gargoyles adding in their greetings as they landed in a loose half circle behind him. "You have more news of Demona?" he asked somberly. Elisa had told them of Demona's suspected kidnapping the previous night, and that police suspected that Kendra Canmore had been taken as well.

"Yes," she hunched into her coat, trying to escape the cold, "The night guard confirmed that Kendra Canmore entered the building fifteen minutes prior to the attack on the building. This morning detectives on the case got confirmation that a helicopter was sighted very near the Nightstone building at that time. Witness said they thought it was about to crash into the building, but it just hovered there for several minutes then moved off."

"Do you believe it actually was real Quarrymen that took them?" asked Angela suspicious, but also looking worried.

Elisa grimaced, Demona had hurt Angela terribly with the Quarrymen deception she had carried out last week. She had used actors playing Quarrymen to attack the clan for the purpose of gaining Angela's trust, only to abuse that trust in the worst possible way as she used it to get Angela to lure Goliath into a trap. Only Demona's hired killer attempting to kill Angela along with Goliath had revealed the entire sordid plan. As far as Elisa was concerned, the only good thing about the entire mess was the fact that Angela's eyes were now open about the type of person her mother had turned into over the centuries.

"She probably set this up too," growled Brooklyn.

Elisa shifted uncomfortably, "I don't know," she said reluctantly. She had wanted to believe this was another ploy by the immortal gargoyle, but the evidence simply wasn't pointing in that direction. "We got a crime stopper tip today on the helicopter. An aircraft mechanic at Teterboro Airport saw a helicopter matching the description of the one seen hovering by the Nightstone building land there. He saw five men get out of the helicopter and carry two long bags from it and load them onto a waiting airplane." She had everyone's attention at this point, "He noticed them because he thought at the time it looked like the scene from a move where they were gangsters were moving bodies, it wasn't until he saw the news that he realized he might have actually seen Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore's kidnappers moving them from the helicopter."

"Where was the plane headed to?" asked Lexington, "Don't they have to file flight plans?"

Broadway broke in, "Yea, but if their kidnappers they would have filed false ones so the police couldn't figure out where they were actually going," he asserted knowledgeably.

"This isn't a movie though," snapped Angela, sounding upset.

Broadway stared at her wide eyed for a moment, before understanding sympathy filled his eyes and he took a step to stand supportively beside her.

"They didn't file a false flight plan," Elisa jumped in before anyone could say anything else, "The plane flew to Alma, Quebec in Canada. The Canadian police confirmed that it landed there and met another plane and then returned to Teterboro the same night this afternoon."

"So the kidnappers, if that is what they actually were, took them to this town in Canada?" asked Goliath.

Elisa shook her head, "Yes, but they didn't stop there, the plane from Teterboro landed in Alma. The Canadian police are certain that the crew split there with some of them taking a smaller plane further north and some of them returning to New Jersey in the original plane."

"Further north where?" asked Lexington, his agile mind as usual focusing immediately upon the significant piece of information.

"Sanikiluaq, Nunavut," she stumbled over the second word still uncertain as to how it was pronounced, "It's on an island in the Hudson Bay, there is an airport there were they were supposed to refuel."

"Supposed to?" Angela asked first.

The dark haired woman sighed, "They never arrived there, the Canadian police aren't certain if they ever mean to or whether…" she hesitated, then continued, "or whether the storm that swept in from the Bay that night forced them to land somewhere between Alma and there."

"That is troubling news," rumbled Goliath, "If they were forced down by this storm Demona will be able to survive due to her immortality. Kendra Canmore's life is the one that is in danger, she is human and while Demona may have found her interesting enough to not kill her immediately, I doubt Demona will help her make it to safety. Demona will leave her behind rather than be slowed down by her," he predicted. "The police there are looking for this plane?" he asked.

Elisa nodded, "They will be sending out search planes tomorrow to fly along the flight path the plane turned into the control tower in Alma."

"Good," he said pleased.

"We still don't know if this isn't some elaborate plot by Demona," pointed out Brooklyn.

"No we don't," agreed Elisa, "But whether it is or not if the plane was forced down its best they start looking for the plane as soon as possible. It's nothing but frozen tundra up there, neither the crew nor Kendra Canmore can survive in that cold for long."

Brooklyn's eyes flared white for a moment, "Your right, Demona wouldn't care that her scheming put others in danger, she only cares about herself. I hope they find them soon and that their alright."

Elise felt a spurt of anger toward Demona as she watched Angela's shoulders slump as she turned and went down the stairs without saying anything to either condemn or defend her mother. Broadway was right behind her hovering anxiously. There was nothing Demona could say to excuse how she had used her daughter, and this situation was just hurting the young gargoyle even more.

* * *

They reached the location Demona had chosen for their next stopping point a few hours before daybreak, just as the redheaded gargoyle had estimated they would. They had left the river they had been traveling beside the day before to follow a smaller branching stream southward. Currently they were approximately seventy-five miles directly northeast of a lake called Lac Misassini on the map.

Demona landed next to Kendra and pointed at the herd of sleeping caribou just visible in the distance, "I'll scatter the herd and drive one of them towards this location, we can bring it down if we work together," she whispered.

Kendra had already scented the herd. She would have been very cautious about trying to split out one of the five hundred pound animals by herself, but with Demona helping, she was more than willing to make the attempt. She dipped her muzzle indicating her agreement with the gargoyle's plan.

Demona circled above the herd a few times scanning through the animals for one that looked weak or injured; on the second circle she found her target, an adult male with fresh blood visible on its hindquarters. The flame-haired gargoyle dove, screaming fiercely. The sleeping caribou herd responded to the sudden attack from above with utter panic, lurching to their feet with alarmed snorts and scattering immediately in all directions. Skillfully Demona separated the injured animal and set it running toward where she had left Kendra. Scanning the ground the gargoyle saw the great cat crouched ready to spring.

As the animal passed her, Kendra sprinted and leapt onto the caribou's back digging her claws into it and lunging forward to bite through the animal's skull. Even as she killed it, the animal stumbled from the unexpected weight upon its back, crashing headfirst into the ground. Kendra released her prey and sprang forward gracefully, taking a few running paces while her prey's momentum caused its body to somersault once hindquarter over antlered head before coming to rest behind her.

The animal was still thrashing dangerously when Demona landed. She stopped beyond the reach of its flailing hooves and grinned at Kendra. "I thought you were going to end up underneath it for a moment there, but I should have known you would be agile enough to avoid that." Demona had expected Kendra to need help bringing down such a large animal. The fact that she had been able to pierce the animal's skull and bring it down alone emphasized to Demona exactly how powerful her companion was in jaguar form. The gargoyle paused, and then continued, "You are an amazing warrior, this should have been a difficult journey, but it's starting to feel more like a vacation with you along," she admitted.

Kendra was both surprised and pleased by Demona's praise. She rumbled her pleasure and swung close enough to the gargoyle to brush affectionately against her legs before proceeding onto the body of their kill.

Demona begin skillfully dressing the animal once its death throes had finished, and to Kendra's surprise took some of the fatty organ meat to eat raw. Correctly identifying Kendra's puzzled glance even while she was in cat form, Demona commented, "I need the extra energy as well, and I can digest it in my true form." They dragged the carcass to the tree line before stopping. Demona, after glancing at the lightening skyline, started preparing a shelter similar to the one they had made the day before.

Demona told Kendra, "Go ahead and start eating, I will take care of the shelter. I can tell you need more food than I do to maintain yourself in that form, especially at the pace we're keeping." Kendra nodded and began tearing into the caribou's flank. Demona was just able to bind together several saplings to form the supports for the shelter and dig a fire pit before her transformation. As soon as she recovered, Dominique pulled on her winter gear and grabbed the survival knife to cut pine boughs to weave through the support poles. Ten minutes later Kendra finished eating and promptly shifted into human form to help the redhead finish completing the shelter.

Once the shelter was finished, they spread out the blankets and lay down. Kendra was pleased when Dominique promptly snuggled up against her. She gently pulled the redhead into her arms, and smiled when Dominique covered the arms resting about her midriff with her own. They fell asleep quickly in the cocoon of their combined warmth.

Kendra dreamed as she slept, she was standing in the Mayan ruins where she found and tried to aid the jaguar. A dark haired, dark eyed woman stepped into the room and greeted her, "Kendra, I see you have done well with my gift. I knew you were the right choice for my successor. Now it is time for you to begin learning more about your abilities, you are capable of much more as a Jaguar warrior priestess than merely changing into your jaguar form. Would you like to learn all that I can teach you young jaguar?"

"Gift?" Kendra repeated, surprised. She examined the woman curiously, and saw the jaguar that she had freed within the human form of the woman. With growing excitement she asked, "How did I become like you are? I remember looking into your eyes, and then nothing until I woke covered in blood."

The woman nodded, "That was my blood on you; I gave up my physical body so I could pass my abilities on to you. I have been waiting for you to be ready to learn more for years. Only recently have you integrated your jaguar and human self enough for you to be able to learn what I have to teach you." She asked again, "Would you like to learn all that I can teach you young jaguar?"

"Yes," agreed Kendra immediately.

The woman smiled, she looked into Kendra's eyes and the lessons began. She did not say anything she did not need to, Kendra's head spun with images, feelings and words as the jaguar woman explained what she was to her.

Finally, the images ceased and the jaguar woman said, "I see the foul greenish tinge of fey magic upon your companion, it is wrapped so tightly about her that it strangles her very soul." She shook her head sadly, "She is enslaved by their magic though she does not realize it." The priestess stared into her eyes, "You must tell her, I will show you and you must tell her what you see."

"I will," promised Kendra taken aback by the forceful tone. "But," she asked, confused, "What are the Fey? And what do you mean by they have enslaved her?" she grew more concerned and angered as she considered what the priestess was saying. Who were these Fey and how were they enslaving Demona?

"Look," the dark haired priestess waved her hand. The temple wall behind her became misty and Kendra could see herself and Dominique sleeping in the shelter. "Look at her and look into her," directed the priestess.

Kendra looked, and then shuddered, sickly green pulsing strands wrapped around and through the gargoyles human form binding it like prey wrapped in a spider's silk, helpless and awaiting the spider. "What is that!" she snarled.

"Fey magic," spat the priestess, her voice pure distaste. "The sorcery she spoke of that grants her immortality is actually fey magic. Look closely, these are those spells." She made a motion toward the slumbering figure and certain of the green lines highlighted brightly for a brief moment. "It is also fey magic that allows her to take on a human form instead of going into stone sleep as well," she motioned again and different lines lit up. "The remainders are various manipulation and binding spells. Unfortunately I lack the knowledge of how to free her from them without disrupting the immortality spell that keeps her alive."

Kendra protested, "But there must be some way to free her!" she couldn't believe that there was nothing that could be done to help Demona. She couldn't go to the gargoyle and tell her this and then be able to offer no hope of freeing herself from these enchantments.

The priestess was silent for a long moment; the she said thoughtfully, "Perhaps there is a spirit that will help us. He hates the Fey for hunting his children until there were no more, and knowledge of the gargoyles enslavement may move him to lend his aid to her. I will seek him out and ask. As for your second question, the Fey are the youngest of the three races, they are powerful and immortal, and too many of their kind believe humans and gargoyles are nothing more than their toys to be pampered or destroyed at their whim. Even the best of them do not believe that our mortal lives have as much worth and value as their own immortal ones, they simply do not make a sport of toying with us."

Kendra stared at her appalled, and then memory kicked in, "The Sidhe?" she questioned, "They're actually real?" Her gaze, sharpened, "Though it sounds more like your describing the Seelie and Unseelie." She shuddered at the thought, though she did not remember much about the tales but she seemed to remember a tale of the Unseelie Hunt turning men into deer and then setting their hounds after them. Then they laughed, drank and made merry as the helpless men were hunted until they could run no more whereupon they were mercilessly torn apart.

"My people did not call them by those names, but from your memories I can tell those are your people's names for them," the jaguar priestess affirmed. "And yes the worst of them did those things, they can be very cruel."

Kendra felt a chill run through her, "But I don't understand," she protested. "Those tales are from centuries ago. How can they still exist and we haven't heard anything about them?" she asked.

"Do not doubt that youngest race still exists, they can take any shape or form and walk freely among the mortal races," the priestess assured Kendra sternly. "As for why there are no tales of them in the recent centuries, their leader, Oberon, forbid them from interfering in mortal lives once humans became numerous enough that it was a possibility we might rise up against their tyranny and destroy them. Though the Fey are immortal the tales you have heard are correct, they can be wounded or killed by cold iron."

Kendra looked through the misty wall at Dominique, "But if they are forbidden from interfering how?" she indicated the redhead's green wrapped form.

"Most Fey obey the spirit of Oberon's wishes, but some resent being forbidden their sport and seek ways of bending his rule so that they could still play their old games. It seems obvious that she was found by one of those willing to bend or ignore Oberon's law." The priestess answered.

Kendra stared at her newfound mentor, "How do you know all of this?" she wondered.

The dark haired priestess smiled grimly, "We have always been immune to fey magic, and unless we make ourselves known they cannot tell what we actually are, also if we are in the form of our animal spirit we can kill them with our natural weapons be those talon, tooth, claw, hoof or horn. They hate and fear us because of these three reasons. In the past, there have been battles between Fey and shaman that have ended in the death of one or the other. Mostly we avoid each other, unless the Fey in question is playing their games with someone, then we usually come into conflict with them. It is not required for you to oppose their meddling, but most shamans will choose to because such meddling is directly opposed to our beliefs."

"Never take life to sustain yourself without respecting the life it gave for you to live. Revere Mother Earth for giving and sustaining all life, in all things seek to protect her and live in harmony with her. Know that each life has inherent worth and never harm a life for harm's sake. Avoid practicing magic on another without their full consent and if possible teach them how instead of doing yourself." Kendra repeated the central values she had learned from the priestess earlier.

The jaguar woman smiled at her in approval. Then with a more serious manner she commanded, "Build a sweat lodge by the river, and bring your companion with you into the spirit realm tonight. Hopefully I will return with assistance, if not I will help her as I am able, and I will continue to seek those more knowledgeable about fey magic than myself."

The jaguar priestess transformed, in her place there was a truly majestic jaguar that dwarfed Kendra's own jaguar shape. The jaguar's green eyes stared at her appraisingly for what seemed like hours before it rumbled its approval and it and the temple disappeared into mist.

Kendra woke, and jerked upright looking around wildly for a moment, confused at the change in her surroundings. Dominique woke as well and looked around ready to fight then seeing nothing asked, "What is it?"

Kendra looked around their shelter once again still not feeling quite awake. "I've been getting lessons from the priestess that gave me my jaguar spirit," she answered.

Dominique gave her a sharp, questioning look, "What do you mean?"

Kendra was feeling more awake by the second, "I was back at the temple, the temple where I found the jaguar. There was a Spanish woman there she told me that she gave up her physical body to give me my jaguar self. She called herself a jaguar warrior priestess."

The redhead was silent for a long moment, considering both Kendra and what she had just said. "Shamanism," Dominique concluded in a satisfied tone.

Kendra smiled remembering their conversation, "Yes, shamanistic transformation magic, she turned into what I guess was my jaguar spirit guide just before the dream ended. Before that though, she taught me about what I am now, about what being a shaman means and how I'm supposed to conduct myself as a jaguar priestess." She finished more seriously thinking about the Fey and the enchantments that bound Dominique.

"Such as?" asked the redhead curiously.

Well, in addition to the strength, quickness and fast healing, I will only age for a few more years and then I will stop getting physically older. I won't die until I chose a successor to pass my gift to just as she passed hers to me." Kendra answered.

Dominique stared at Kendra, "You're immortal?"

Kendra shrugged, "I am until I find a successor, but that will probably not be for quite awhile since I'm just learning what I am. I got the feeling from her that each jaguar priestess usually lives several hundred years before they decide to move on."

Dominique looked thoughtful, "I had wondered if you were immortal after you died and then came back to life on the plane… I guess Macbeth and I haven't been the only immortal's around for the past thousand years." Dominique looked at Kendra and smiled saying, "Welcome to the club, it will be nice to have another immortal around besides Macbeth." The redhead gave Kendra a thoughtful look after saying that but didn't say anything further. Kendra could guess that Dominique was thinking of how this new revelation affected their newly begun intimacy, and she wondered if it would be a mark in her favor or against.

She really couldn't put this off for much longer, Kendra decided, there was just the question of how to bring the subject up. "We also spoke of the Fey; I didn't even know the Sidhe were anything more than tales until she confirmed that they actually exist."

"The Fey," Dominique repeated confused, "Why did she mention them?"

"Because we seem to be something of natural enemies, she told me I can injure or kill one while in jaguar form, no cold iron needed. We are also immune to fey magic, it doesn't affect shamans. She really didn't have anything nice to say about them; the most she would allow is that some of them at least don't see us as play toys to be treated as their whim leads them." By the end of her statement Kendra's voice had gained a hint of a growl as she remembered their conversation. She looked up to see the redhead staring at her surprised. "Mostly though what brought up the conversation about the Fey and their ways was you," Kendra's voice softened.

"Me?" Dominique frowned. "Ah the shape change spell and the immortality spell that binds Macbeth and I together," she realized.

Kendra shook her head, "No not just those, she taught me how to see fey magic." Kendra concentrated as the priestess had taught her and looked into Dominique. "I wish I could show you what I am seeing, how much of the strands bind around and thru you, there is scarcely any space I can see within you that does not have a strand of green crawling through it."

Dominique recoiled from Kendra's suddenly all too piercing gaze, "What do you mean!" she snapped hiding her sudden unease with anger.

Kendra's eyes focused upon Dominique's green ones, "The priestess told me that she saw manipulation and binding spells upon you, not just the shape-change and immortality ones. The Fey you and Macbeth dealt with did far more than they told you when they bound you together."

"You can't know that," the redhead protested, refusing to listen to what she did not want to hear or even consider.

"I believe I can," Kendra said softly, "She even showed me which particular ones they were," Kendra's gaze unfocused once again as she made a motion with her hand in the air.

Dominique gasped, feeling something twitch briefly inside her in response to Kendra's gesture.

The newly minted shaman froze, "Did you feel that?" she asked uncertainly.

"I felt something," Dominique admitted, feeling both reassured by Kendra's obvious dismay that the woman hadn't meant to do anything to her, and a dawning fear that what Kendra was saying might be just be real. The three witches might have done much more to her than just binding her and Macbeth's lives together.

"I'm sorry," Kendra immediately apologized. "I didn't realize that you would feel anything, you didn't seem to when she did it in my dream."

The redhead pushed aside her fears and smirked at this, "You need to ask her to demonstrate the spell again then. What were you trying to do?"

"Well I did do it, they did light up, I'm just not sure why you felt it," Kendra answered. "I was causing the fey enchantments that allow you to be human during the day to brighten, so I could see which ones they were separate from all the others," she explained.

Her attention brought back to the reason for this conversation, Dominique's fears returned in full measure. This time though she didn't get angry with Kendra, "Tell me exactly what you remember of what she said to you," the redhead insisted.

Kendra cast her mind back to when the priestess had begun talking about fey magic, she couldn't remember the conversation verbatim, but she repeated to Dominique everything that she could remember.

"What ancient animal spirit? And how am I supposed to get into the spirit realm to meet him providing that he agrees?" asked Dominique when Kendra finished speaking.

The black haired woman shrugged, "I don't know, she didn't say, only what I told you, that his children were killed off by the Fey. As to how you accompany me into the spirit realm that's easy, it will take some work to build a sweat lodge and find a drum for me to use, but after that it won't be difficult at all."

Dominique stared at Kendra nonplused, a sweat lodge?

Kendra glanced outside, gauging the remaining daylight, "I would like to see if we can manage it today, let's see if we can't get everything ready by sundown. I think we have four or five hours until then. I can use saplings and sod blocks for the lodge, it doesn't have to be big for this. The next problem is to build a large fire and start the rocks heating. And I need to find a hollow log or something suitable for drumming."

Dominique paused startled, both at the list and Kendra's enthusiasm for the project, "I don't know if it can be done by today, but why not give it a try." She said feeling a slowly building interest of her own.

She didn't know what to think about Kendra's claim that there were numerous manipulation and binding spells upon her. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew the Weird Sisters had enchanted her and Macbeth and used them to attack Angela and her rookery brothers and sisters upon Avalon. Angela had told her about her actions on Avalon during Demona's imprisonment in the Labyrinth, though personally she remembered nothing of that time. Though she didn't want to, she had to entertain the idea that the priestess that Kendra had met might be right, and if she was then Demona wanted to meet this spirit who could help her break those enchantments. She didn't want to think of the Weird Sisters being able to enchant her to do whatever they wished again, it was outrageous enough they had done it the one time.

Kendra nodded, "First let's choose a spot for the lodge." They were not far from the stream they had been following southward. Kendra marked out a spot by the stream bank and began carving the soil into blocks using the survival knife and laying them aside. She cleared out a foot deep five-foot radius circle then went to gather poles to use to support the sides of the building.

Dominique worked at building the fire pit and gathering wood to supply it. As the redhead worked on the fire pit Kendra started placing the poles firmly into the ground at the edge of where she had dug out a circle for the lodge, once the poles were in place Kendra bent them in together at the top and tied them together. By this time, Dominique had build up a large bonfire and set it afire to burn down into coals.

"It seems like what we are lacking now is a drum," Dominique observed. "Anything you can pound and get a sound from will do, such as a hollow tree? We don't have time to cure a hide to use as a drumhead."

Glancing up from where she was weaving branches around the poles to form a barrier against the sod, Kendra answered, "Anything that makes a drum like noise will do."

They had two more hours of daylight left when Dominique came back with a bit of hollowed out log and two thick sticks; she pounded on the log and looked at Kendra for her approval. Kendra listened to the sound and nodded in satisfaction, "That will do."

Kendra was half way done with the lodge and the bonfire was burning into coals at this point. Dominique took the rocks she had collected and rolled them into the coals to heat and then helped Kendra complete the lodge. Peering inside Dominique saw the depression the hot rocks would rest in and noticed that Kendra had covered the dirt floor with pine needles for them to sit on. In the meantime, Kendra returned from the shelter with one of the blankets and a pot for them to use to hold water for the heated rocks. The two of them stared with satisfaction for a few minutes at the completed lodge before going down to the stream to wash their hands and faces.


	8. Chapter 8

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 8**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/16/08

* * *

Dominique disappeared into the shelter before sun went down to change into her halter-top and loincloth. She emerged just in time for her change to take place screaming in pain as simultaneously her wings erupted from her back, her feet and hands changed to talons, and her skin darkened into blue. The immortal gargoyle snarled at the sky and flared her wings before calming, the red glow disappearing from her eyes.

Kendra walked over to her, asking gently, "Are you ready?"

Demona wanted to say no, her emotions were a stirred up mixture of fear, curiosity and resoluteness. She both wanted and didn't want to face whatever it was that she was going to find out tonight. Finally she responded curtly, "I'm ready," she crouched and crawled into the sweat lodge.

Kendra handed the redheaded gargoyle two sticks, "Use these to guide the stones into the pit," she instructed. The black-haired women rolled four rocks from the fire using her own sticks and then pushed them carefully into the lodge. Once they were at the lodge opening Demona took over and rolled them into the pit inside the lodge. Kendra grabbed the drumming log and sticks, placed them inside the lodge and then handed Demona the water filled pot. Finally, she stripped down to her underwear and laid her clothes next to the fire and entered the lodge herself and pulled the blanket down, only leaving a small gap for light. She took the pot from Demona and poured some of the water over the rocks letting the hot steam fill the closed in space. Then she started drumming and chanting.

Demona stared at the black haired woman in wonder for Kendra was chanting in no language the gargoyle recognized. The novice shamaness stared intently into Demona's green eyes as she chanted. The immortal gargoyle found herself ensnared by the Kendra's blue gaze… and abruptly she was standing next to the stream where the sweat lodge was located. Demona looked around for the lodge and saw the shadowy outline of it as well as the shadow forms of Kendra and herself sitting inside. She turned around and saw Kendra standing next to her; strangely, somehow she could also see the woman's jaguar form at the same time. She stared back at the shadowy form of the lodge fascinated at the fact that she was seeing the ghostly outline of the real world here in the spirit realm.

Kendra stared at something behind the gargoyle and Demona turned to see what had attracted the black haired woman's attention. A dark eyed, dark haired woman now stood next to them. This must be the priestess that Kendra had spoken about the gargoyle realized. The dark haired woman was staring at the gargoyle, a concerned, thoughtful frown upon her face. If Demona already hadn't had a good idea what might prompt such an expression she would have snapped at the woman for it.

"I am pleased to see you here," the priestess greeted them. She then turned and addressed Demona specifically, "The Ancient One already knew of you, and has agreed to meet you," she hesitated, "there is also another spirit that is curious about you and would like to meet you as well if you permit it."

The immortal gargoyle was surprised, how had this Ancient One already known of her? And who was this other spirit that wanted to meet her? "Very well," she agreed uncertainly.

"Good," the priestess responded obviously pleased, "She is very wise and knowledgeable about all forms of magic."

Demona was about to insist that the priestess tell her exactly what type of spirit she was talking about when the dark haired woman turned around and looked expectantly toward the east.

Out of the trees, gracefully stepped a very large stag with antlers unlike any the immortal gargoyle had ever seen before. Demona stared at it in astonishment; in size, the stag dwarfed the caribou they had brought down earlier and she guessed that it stood over seven feet tall at the top of its shoulders. Its antlers had wide thick flattened areas or palms, reminding her somewhat of the antlers of moose and she guessed the stag's antlers reached twelve or so foot in total width. How it had managed to make its way through the forest with such antlers she could not even begin to guess.

"Holy," exclaimed Kendra from beside her, she feel silent for a moment and then she muttered in a much quieter voice, "Its Bambi's dad on steroids."

Demona felt a grin tugging at her lips at that comment. What breed of deer was this? She recalled that Kendra had said that the ancient spirit's children had been hunted to extinction by the Fey, and she wondered if this stag was the ancient spirit that had agreed to help her. That would explain why she had never seen any animal like this, the smile fell from her lips and she felt a sharp pang of regret at the thought. She wondered what it would have been like to see herds of these magnificent creatures roaming through the hills of Scotland. She knew what it was like to be hunted almost to extinction, but to be utterly alone, to know that no others existed of your kind.

As the animal stepped closer with dignified grace, Demona noticed Kendra subtly edging away from her, eyeing the stag with obvious wariness. She glanced at the black haired woman, concerned, and then she smirked. She leaned over and whispered, "Certainly you weren't thinking of trying to hunt him?"

Kendra shook her head vigorously, "Not this little kitty, nope," she whispered back.

A snort from the stag indicated that they had not been quiet enough to escape being overheard, "Fear not young jaguar, I know you intend me no harm." The stag's tone was resonantly deep, and clearly amused.

Kendra eyed the giant stag's horns and sharp hooves; it didn't take much of an imagination to figure out what they would do to her even in her jaguar shape. "Good, I definitely wouldn't want you to think for even a nanosecond that I was any threat at all," she replied earnestly.

The priestess smiled and shook her head at this, before turning to face the giant stag, "Greetings Ancient One," she said respectfully. "This is the one I told you about," she indicated the gargoyle.

"Demona, yes I have seen this gargoyle in the past and upon Avalon a short time ago," the stag stated.

The immortal gargoyle stared up into the giant deer's wise brown eyes, "How?" she asked, then she looked around her, "the spirit realm it touches Avalon as well."

"Yes, the spirit realm touches Avalon" the stag confirmed, "I am sorry I could aid neither you nor the human male called Macbeth. Without an intermediary, such as your companion," he nodded toward Kendra, "to act through, we cannot affect the living world from here."

"You were there," Demona stared at the stag, agitated, "You saw those witches make me attack our clan's children, attack my own daughter," her eyes flared red.

"I have watched them for eons, I watched helpless as they hunted down and killed my children for sport even as our numbers dwindled due to starvation. I watched as they killed the last of us and then regretted only the fact that there were no more of us to hunt," the great stag spoke with great sorrow. "After that I watched them, and learned about them."

"And though he has not interacted with the world since his people died, he has shared with the rest of us everything he has learned from watching them. Through our chosen ones the knowledge he has gained has been used against them," a voice from above startled Demona. This must be the second spirit, the redheaded gargoyle realized as a large eagle owl swooped down from above, its feathers black and white barred. "Might I trouble you for a perch Ancient One? I so dislike taking off from the ground," the owl requested politely as she hovered in the air.

"You may," the stag agreed.

"Thank you," the Eagle Owl alighted near the center of the great stag's antlers and turned her luminous amber eyes upon Demona, staring at her in such an intense way that the gargoyle felt uncomfortable.

"Wise One," the priestess greeted the owl.

"Jaguar's chosen," the owl dipped her head toward the priestess as she acknowledged her. Then the owl turned her attention back to the gargoyle. "You were right," the owl announced, "She does have a rather fascinating assortment of fey magic upon her." The owl turned her head sideways as if that helped her get a better look at the gargoyle. "What a smorgasbord, there's enchantments, compulsion spells," the volume of the owl's voice dropped and it became obvious that the owl was mumbling to herself as she continued listing the types of fey magic she was seeing, "manipulation spells, binding spells, shape changing, healing spells, binding enchantments…" The owl's head twisted around in the other direction as if getting a different angle would help, "There's even some I don't recognize, and the subtlety of them is so unusual, the Fey usually don't bother with it." The Eagle Owl sounded entranced with what she was seeing.

Demona snarled, her eyes glowing red, "I'm not here for you to study me; I'm not some specimen of yours." She was angry, and she was frightened. The litany of enchantments and spells the owl had rattled off, and the things she had said afterward…why would the Weird Sisters have gone to that type of effort? What had they done to her that everyone, even Kendra, was able to see, but she wasn't?

The owl's head swiveled immediately upright, "I beg your pardon," she apologized softly, "Of course you are not. You are here because you seek help, and my help you shall definitely receive." The owl vowed.

The gargoyles eyes returned to normal as her anger faded.

"And mine;" the majestic stag assured her, "However, the question before us now is how to proceed? The enchantments upon her are intricate, and I do not understand the purpose of all of them. The ones that bind her and the human male together are all that sustain her life, if we dissolve the wrong enchantment we will kill her instead of aiding her," the stag pointed out grimly.

"True," replied the owl thoughtfully, "they do seem to all be wrapped around and tied together don't they. We will have to unsnarl each one to see what it does and how it's connected with the rest before teaching her how to dissolve them."

The great stag stared thoughtfully at Demona, "She needs to see first, she needs to see what we see," the stag paused, and continued in a compassionate tone, "She needs to understand what was done to her and why."

The owl bobbed her head looking very agitated, "Are you sure?" she asked. Demona thought she sounded uncertain, "From what you have told me the truth will not be kind to her." The owl let out a mournful cry, "Not very kind at all. Are you certain that is where you wish to start?" the owl asked again.

Demona wanted to break in and ask what the two spirits were talking about, certainly she deserved to know what the Weird Sisters had done to her and why they had done it. Didn't she? She glanced uncertainly at the owl who was staring at her with such obvious compassion.

"Wishing," the stag pawed at the ground sharply, "I wish my children were still running across the grasslands but they are not," he breathed in deeply. "I do not wish to start with the why of it, but that is where we must start, otherwise she will not trust us and will fight us even if it is only unconsciously. She has no reason to trust us any more than she does the Fey," the stag pointed out. "She must know the truth, she must know the why to know who she can trust and who she cannot."

The owl snapped her beak together, and Demona couldn't discern whether this indicated the owl was angry or upset.

"You have a valid point," the owl still sounded reluctant, "Very well, we shall start there."

Demona finally broke in, asking in frustration, "Start where?!"

The two spirits focused their attention back upon her. It was the great stag that answered, "By returning the memories that are currently denied you. The three fey did not take them away, they simply cast a spell on you and the human to deny you access to them."

"My memories of Avalon," Demona whispered suddenly understanding.

"And before," the great stag added.

The gargoyles eyes widened slightly, she had known that there were several days missing but hadn't known that there were days missing before she had been taken to Avalon.

"Do you wish to have your past returned to you, to regain the memories rightfully yours that the three fey sisters denied you?" the great stag asked in a formal manner.

"Yes I do," she responded immediately, She had never liked the fact that there were days missing from her memory. The memories might be unpleasant, but she deserved to know what had happened.

The stag inclined its antlered head for a moment, then raised it again. It stared at her for a long searching moment, "The Eagle Owl spirit is correct, these memories…returning them to you is a necessity, not a gift, for I am certain what you are about to remember will wound you deeply. I wish you to know that I will help you determine the truth of your past. You no longer stand alone against the ones you call the Weird Sisters."

The owl fluffed her wings, "Well said," she complemented the stag, "I will add my own assurances of aid to the Ancient One's, you no longer stand alone in this battle."

Demona stared at the two spirits, not knowing quite how to respond. Frantic questions raced through her mind asking what events were in these memories that would cause the two to feel as if they had to reassure her before returning them.

She felt Kendra's warm presence by her side just before the black haired woman spoke, "I too am here for you. Whatever you remember and I think it's become pretty damn clear to both of us that it's not going to be pleasant; I will help you deal with it as much as you will let me. I will not leave you alone in this just as I would not leave you earlier."

Kendra's blue eyes were resolute and determined as they met Demona's own startled gaze. The gargoyle felt a rush of warm affection for the woman beside her. She felt confident that Kendra would be with her. Whatever it was that she about to face, Kendra would not desert her, it was simply not who the woman was. The gargoyle turned leaned against Kendra responding automatically to the mixture of warmth, gentle concern, caring and fierce protectiveness she felt from the woman. Strong arms wrapped around her and Demona reveled in the warm embrace for a few moments before realizing one essential thing. She was feeling Kendra's emotions. Her green eyes opened startled, and met equally surprised blue ones.

"What?" they uttered together.

"This is the spirit realm," the priestess's voice drew both of their attention, "In the case of strongly held emotions you are able to feel them if you are the cause of them, such as what, I gather from your actions, you are currently feeling from each other."

Kendra reached up and stroked the flame-red, wild hair, "Well good," she said, "I'm glad that you know I'm serious about being here for you." She met Demona's gaze calmly.

The gargoyle smiled, "I do." Kendra's calm acceptance helped quell her own unease at the thought of her emotions being felt by anyone else, even if it was the person who was the cause of them in the first place.

Turning back to the great stag, she took in a deep steadying breath. Now that she knew that she was not only feeling her own emotions, she could discern Kendra's sure, steady strength beside her. It gave her courage, and her voice was admirably even given the level of anxiety she was feeling as she said, "I am ready to remember, dissolve the enchantments."

Demona felt a moment of dizziness then…

She was standing still as stone, unable to do anything but stare stiffly straight ahead. She wasn't even certain where she was, except that she was indoors within a room hung with ornate tapestries.

Selene appeared in front of her, the black haired fey's eyes were cold as they examined her. "So it begins, we will finally get our revenge upon the human sorcerer and his companions for their insult against us and their trespass upon Avalon. Mortals have no place upon our fair isle."

Another of the sisters spoke from behind her, "We use one mortal sorcerer against another, the Archmage has been useful in allowing us to bend Oberon's law."

"What of our soldiers, are they ready for their task?" the white haired Luna appeared just within her field of vision.

"As the Archmage instructed, they are filled with bitterness and hatred, and they are bound to no living thing save each other. They are strong and skilled warriors and will attack without mercy whomever we instruct them to," Selene smiled coldly.

"But first they have other tasks to perform," Luna spoke next.

Demona remembered stealing the Grimorum Arcanorum, the Phoenix Gate and the Eye of Odin, from Goliath while Coldstone kept the clan distracted, with the help of Macbeth. She remembered standing with Macbeth by a table upon which were the three magical items, staring at them confused as to why she had obtained them.

"But why did we steal these things? And how did we even know where to find them?" Demona asked Macbeth.

He moved to grab the Grimorum from her hands and after a short back and forth struggle with the book she finally let him take it. He put it back on the table and turned to her glaring, "For that matter why are we working together now?" he asked aggressively.

She growling at him, and he went for the chair by the table. Then she couldn't move, just as before. "It seems we have arrived just in time my sisters." She heard one of the Weird Sisters say.

Selene appeared within her field of vision, "The spell we placed on these two was about to wear off."

Another sister that she couldn't see replied, "You can only compel someone to act against their nature for so long."

The other two sisters stepped next to Selene who was staring at she and Macbeth coolly, "Was it wise to release Coldstone?" she asked.

Phoebe commented, "Perhaps we could have found a way to place a spell on him as well."

The white haired Luna authoritatively, "We do not need Coldstone. These will do quite nicely in the coming battle."

The three sisters raised their arms together and Demona felt a magical wind stir and then the room disappeared and they were standing upon a barge, two Archmages were waiting for them.

The sisters gave the Archmage that looked like Demona remembered from nine hundred years ago the Eye of Odin. The magical artifact bound to him upon his brow and he transformed, now he more closely resembled the second Archmage that stood beside him. The sisters gave him the book, and impossibly opening his mouth wide, the first Archmage swallowed the Grimorum making it part of himself so that he could take its magic with him onto Avalon. Finally, the sisters gave him the Phoenix Gate. Now the two Archmages looked exactly alike.

The mist rose again and now they were by a lake bordered by high cliffs. To her right were steps leading up to a stone rotunda. The Weird Sisters lead Macbeth and she up the steps to the rotunda, a small pool filled the center of it.

It was daylight, and Demona was in human form, the Archmage insisted that they wait until sunset to begin their attack upon the Magus. The Weird Sisters left upon some errand, leaving Macbeth and she alone with the two Archmages.

One of the Archmages stalked towards her still form, "This beast betrayed me," he hissed staring at her balefully. "I showed her kindness by agreeing to teach her to read, seeing that she was more cunning than the others of her kind. I even taught her rudimentary spells, and in return for that, she split the Phoenix Gate in two and gave half to that other beast she mated with instead of giving it to me! I told her were to find it, I ordered her to bring it to me and she disobeyed me," he spat. Vindictively he continued, "I should have left her wallowing in the filth of her own ignorance like the other beasts. I was mistaken when I thought that she would be useful to me." Demona felt chilled and afraid, she was completely unable to move, helpless in the face of the Archmage's hatred.

He circled around her, "And then to add insult to injury she betrayed me a second time, she was one of the beasts who followed me, who stole the Grimorum from me and almost caused my death." He paused, "Would have caused my death if it weren't for myself," he laughed.

Suddenly he stopped, "You said we were doing her no favors by choosing her as one of our cannon fodder, what did you mean? I want vengeance upon her as well as upon Goliath."

The second Archmage rose, "Don't you remember our specific instructions regarding these two?" he smiled cruelly.

"To make sure they remain powerful warriors, the Weird Sisters were to make sure their lives were filled with bitterness and hatred. Bitterness and hatred make warriors that are hard and merciless. They were to make sure they did not become contented with their immortality, or concerned with descendants or lovers that might make them soft, compassionate. They were to make sure they remained alone, that they had no ties to anyone but each other, and that the ties that bound them together were ones of enmity." The first Archmage repeated, "Why those words, how does that give us our revenge for her betrayal of me." He spoke to the second Archmage shaking a pointing finger in her face.

The second Archmage laughed, it was a cold, cruel sound. "This beast has lived a thousand years. A thousand years of hating, a thousand years of bitterness, a thousand years of being completely alone. A thousand years of our revenge, a thousand years of repayment for her betrayal."

The first Archmage stared at her, and then he smiled, "I see." A few seconds later, his face fell, "But she does not know why, until she knows this was her punishment I have not had my revenge," he snarled at the second Archmage.

"Patience," counseled the second Archmage, "When the Magus and his companions are destroyed, when Goliath is dead, then we will have the Weird Sisters lift their compulsion. Then she will know the full cost of her betrayal. She will know how foolish she was to have disobeyed and betrayed me." The two of them turned and stared at her, and if she could have, she would have recoiled from the gloating satisfaction in each of their eyes.

The second Archmage, finally stopped glaring at her, turning to the first to say, "The only thing better would have been if I could have broken the enchantment upon Goliath and set them at each other. I'm certain that the Weird Sisters could have used what happened at Wyvern Castle to do it, unfortunately though I couldn't figure out how, so I had to make do with Macbeth."

The first Archmage observed, "That is unfortunate. I guess we shall just have to be content with killing him now." The two looked at each other and then laughed manically. Even as their laughter chilled her, she wondered how they planned to kill Goliath when as far as she knew he was still in Manhattan.

The Weird Sisters lead the attack upon the castle the Magus had claimed for his own, breaching the outer wall with their magic immediately after the sunset. There were gargoyles inside, she had not known there were any on Avalon, but there was nothing she could do, rage as she might against the enchantments that bound her. They attacked firing at those in the castle even as they asked who they were.

Silently, trapped in her own mind, Demona screamed out in protest as one of her shots when through a teal colored female's wing, wounding her badly. A pale green colored male swooped in and struggled to pull her weapon away from her, she slashed at his wings feeling the skin tear as she drove him away. She raged at attacking them at all, but at least she had not yet landed any killing blow. To her relief, magic surrounded her summoning her away from the attack.

Selene began protesting immediately, "Why did you call us off?

The Archmage replied arrogantly as if lecturing a student, "If we wait until dawn the gargoyles will be stone. Three puny humans will be all that stand between us and victory." He smiled, "Besides I need to give them time to bring Goliath to the island, my vengeance would not be complete without him," he ended spitefully.

Demona didn't know whether to wish Goliath away or hope that he was indeed coming here. As stupid as she thought her ex-mate was, he was still a magnificent warrior and he might be able to protect the other gargoyles from Macbeth and her.

Time passed as the Weird Sisters and the two Archmages stared into the pool in the middle of the rotunda. Finally, the Archmage reached down and stirred the water and announced, "Finally all the pieces are now in place, Goliath and his clan are doomed."

One of the Archmages left on an errand. Time passed while the Sisters and the remaining Archmage stared into the pool. The Archmage rose, apparently having seen in the pool whatever he had been waiting upon, "Finally, now the real fun begins," he said smiling, and then he broke out into the maniacal laughter she was beginning to expect from him.

Macbeth and she were sent out to intercept Goliath. Demona stepped into the bushes beside the path and waited for her former mate to arrive. She breathed out a sigh of relief and felt a wave of fierce satisfaction when she felt the stick she had spotted moments ago now underneath her left foot. It was not long before she spotted Goliath and two younger gargoyles moving quickly down the path toward the rotunda. Purposefully not thinking about what she was doing, she shifted her weight and the stick cracked with a loud snap underneath her foot.

The younger blonde male stopped, Goliath and the lavender female pulled up looking towards him curiously. "I heard something over there," the young male said, pointing toward where Demona was hidden. "Did you hear it?" he asked them.

Goliath and the lavender female both shook their heads. Demona groaned silently, stupid stubborn male. As she knew would happen, Goliath proceeded to ignore the possibility of danger and didn't check to see if the younger male had actually heard anything.

"The grotto is just ahead," the young lavender female announced.

"I'll act as a diversion," Goliath laid out the attack plan, "Retrieve the Eye of Odin and the Phoenix Gate and get out." The younger gargoyles moved off, Goliath called softly after them, "and no heroics."

As the younger two continued following the path toward the Grotto and the rotunda there, Goliath turned off the path and into the woods apparently planning on coming upon the rotunda from the back. Demona's body moved to follow the two gargoyles, the compulsion upon her apparently deciding they were the greater threat. As she followed the most obvious and least concealed route to the path, the immortal gargoyle felt a surge of hope; it seemed to be easier and easier to have some effect on her own body. She deliberately pushed nosily through some bushes, hopefully even her apparently deaf ex-mate couldn't miss this much noise.

She met up with Macbeth and the two of them followed the younger gargoyles who finally stepped off the path to hide behind some bushes approximately fifty feet from the rotunda. Demona had been starting to wonder if the two would just walk directly up to the Archmage. The blue-skinned gargoyle stepped directly behind the two, appalled at how oblivious the two youngsters were to their surroundings.

She pushed the muzzle of weapon lightly into the lavender females back, only to roll her eyes in exasperation as the female turned to the male beside her, complaining softly, "Stop it."

_What was Goliath thinking to send such untrained youngsters against the Archmage?_ Demona thought angrily.

"Hands up and don't move," ordered Macbeth.

Demona was relieved they weren't just firing upon the two, she wasn't certain she could make herself miss at this close range. The youngsters turned around and the immortal gargoyle saw the female's eyes flare red. _No_, she thought despairingly, as her weapon swung toward the attacking female. Then Goliath was there pushing it aside. She felt a wave of relief, apparently she had finally been loud enough for him to hear.

"These are our clan's children," he said glaring at her. She looked past him at the two youngsters. _How had she not realized this before_, she wondered, she had seen the Magus and Catherine at the castle, these then were the hatchlings from the eggs she had seen them loading onto carts over nine hundred years ago. Time must flow much slower here.

"Demona, I know you hate humans, but these are innocent gargoyles," Goliath continued.

But she wasn't really listening to him now, she was looking at the young lavender female behind him, the young lavender female whose coloring was an exact match of her ex-mates. She was taking in the young females face, seeing the shape of it, and wondering. Her weapon swung up towards the youngster, her body controlled by the compulsion spell of the Weird Sisters. Everything inside Demona rose up in outraged protest, this female could be Goliath and she's daughter.

"No," she managed to utter her protest aloud; the compulsion snapped allowing her control of her own body after days of enslavement. "Can it be?" she questioned wonderingly, her gaze taking in everything about the young female.

Seeing that she was free Goliath turned to address Macbeth, "And you, Macbeth. Does your much-vaunted sense of honor include the slaughter of innocents?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Demona saw Macbeth's weapon drop and her one time friend's hand raise to his forehead as he doubtless suffered from the same pounding head as she.

"The Archmage is using you," Goliath informed them, as if this were news to them.

Demona was trying to think of a suitable scathing comment, after all how stupid did Goliath think she was, when the Archmages maniacal laughter preceded his appearance.

"Oh your very good Goliath," the Archmage said condescendingly, "But appealing to their better natures won't help you, their my creatures now."

That was all the warning Demona had before her brief moment of freedom was abruptly over.

"I have great plans for you Goliath," the Archmage continued after regaining control over Macbeth and Demona, "But these young ones are expendable."

With a sickening sense of realization, the immortal gargoyle realized that this too was part of the Archmage's revenge upon her; he would force her body to slay her clan's children, to slay her own daughter. It was also his revenge upon Goliath, he would doubtless hold off killing her former mate until all their clan's children were dead, making it clear that Goliath had failed to protect them before finally killing him.

"Destroy them," the Archmage commanded.

Helpless, Demona watched herself raise her weapon; Bronx's attack was never so welcome even as she struggled to keep his jaws away from her. Just before Bronx left off his attack, she heard the younger male gargoyle's voice, "Angela, come on." The small group retreated quickly.

As the Archmage ranted, she savored the knowledge she had just gained, _Angela_. She wondered who had named her daughter, and if the name gave her some hint of the young females personality. They returned to the rotunda. As the Archmage stared into the pool broodingly, the three Sisters pulled Macbeth and Demona off to the side.

"They broke the compulsion placed upon them," Selene eyed them narrowly.

Luna observed calmly, "They were forced to go directly against their natures. The gargoyles are young and untrained; Macbeth refused attack those unable to defend themselves." She stared at Demona, "And this one has always resisted any compulsion to directly harm another gargoyle."

The yellow haired Phoebe spoke, "Her nature is to protect her own kind. The Archmage thinks to compel her to kill the gargoyles in the castle, but she will continue rebelling against that compulsion. He will be forced to make her a mindless servant before she will obey such an order."

Selene frowned, "The Archmage controls them currently, not us."

Demona could sense them glancing at one another, the three sisters gestured and she could feel the compulsion on her lessen briefly before being replaced.

"We should repair the compulsions on the gargoyle, they have been weakened," observed Luna.

"Will they be needed?" asked Selene coolly. Demona knew full well that the black haired sister was asking if she would live long enough to warrant them bothering. She knew if the Archmage succeeded in his plans that she wouldn't want to live with the knowledge of what he had forced her to do.

"We may have a further use for her," Luna stated.

Phoebe stepped in front of the gargoyle staring into her eyes, "Remember Castle Wyvern, remember what your actions lead to, the slaughter of your clan by the Vikings." Demona remembered, she remembered the brief moment of hope that the Captains plan had succeeded before that hope turned to horror as she turned over the stone fragment of Coldstone's face. "You were the cause of their death, you were the one who helped the Captain of the Guard weaken the castles defenses so that the Vikings could come and kill your clan during the day." Regret and grief welled up inside the gargoyle, but the Sisters did not stop there.

Selene replaced Phoebe, "Remember your clan at Castle Moray, you betrayed Macbeth to Canmore and in return Canmore betrayed you. Canmore found them all and killed them, from the eldest to the youngest. If you had not led him to them they would have lived."

Demona remembered, she remembered Gruoch's words, "Go and search for your kind, then. Search until you and your kind are but a nightmare memory." She remembered the frantic flight back to the cave where the clan had taken shelter, the fragments of their stone forms that she found proof of the woman's words.

Tears welled in the gargoyles eyes and ran down her face, yet there was no mercy no compassion in the gazes of the three sisters that surrounded her. Luna stepped in front of her, "You bring death and destruction to your kind, to associate with you means their certain demise."

Selene added, "Any gargoyle that is near you is in danger, danger from the Hunters that seek your death, and in danger from the choices that you made."

Phoebe spoke next, "The only way you can protect them is to protect them from you."

"The only way to protect them is to drive them away from you." Demona was no longer certain which sister was speaking as their words drove into her mind.

"To protect them you must make them hate you, make them want to have nothing to do with you, then they will be safe."

"To protect them you must remain alone." Luna alone was in front of her now, examining her tear tracked face with a chill dispassionate stare.

"I must remain alone," Demona repeated obediently, accepting her fate. The three Weird Sisters nodded in satisfaction.

The remainder of the battle on Avalon was blurred in her memory, mixed in with the sadness and grief the sisters had stirred within her. There were moments of clarity, her horror when she entered the castle and saw all the wounded gargoyles. The strangeness of seeing Princess Catherine looking so old, of seeing the woman who had called her a beast and looked upon her with hatred, standing so staunchly in front of the young gargoyles determined to protect them even if it cost her whatever short years remained of her life.

Elisa Maza providing a much needed distraction when Demona was almost certain she could no longer delay her body from firing upon one of the wounded gargoyles. Her victory when she persuaded herself that she didn't need a weapon to take on the human woman, and threw the laser rifle away before rushing Maza.

She was so used to not fighting with her full abilities against the Detective, that it was easy to persuade her body to do so now. Originally, she had stayed her hand in order to give the human time to betray the clan, so that they would understand what she already knew, there was no human they could trust. Recently she had grudgingly begun to consider that Maza actually might be the exception that Brooklyn claimed she was, that the detective would never betray the clan.

Finally, with Maza and the male in armor holding her down to the floor, Demona decided it was time to remind her compelled body that it had thrown away a perfectly good weapon. Even as she snarled, "I'll destroy you all," and clawed for the weapon she knew she was too far away from the rifle to reach it. The Weird Sisters compulsion must be weakening if she had this much control over her actions, she realized feeling a stirring of hope.

Of everyone that could have picked up the laser rifle, Demona was surprised to see that the Princess was the one to finally reach for it after a yellow colored gargbeast knocked it further away.

"Enough of this," said the Princess in a clear, angry voice, "Get clear!"

Demona felt the two humans scramble away from her, she managed to slow her body as she rose, waiting for the impact of the blast that would stop her from attacking. To her surprise the old woman didn't fire at her but the wall behind her, she barely had time to realize that before something heavy struck her head.


	9. Chapter 9

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 9**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/19/08

* * *

Kendra shook herself as the castle in Avalon faded from around her, she hadn't been privy to Demona's thoughts, but watching what had happened and what those present had said had been both chilling and eye opening. Hearing the Archmage's instructions to the three fey had prompted an unwelcome thought to surface, had the Weird Sisters had anything to do with the Canmore families' pursuit of Demona? Was the vendetta entirely her ancestors' decision, or had they too become one of the playing pieces in the Weird Sisters intrigues?

Demona sunk to the ground with a groan, pulling Kendra abruptly from her thoughts. The black-haired woman pushed her own concerns away, if it had been hard for her to watch as a third party observer she could guess at how much harder it had been for the gargoyle to relive. "Demona?" she knelt by the blue-skinned gargoyle, her heart aching for her, and gently placed her hand on the gargoyle's shoulder.

The flame-haired gargoyle looked up at her; the green eyes were hollow, lost. "My life, all these centuries I have fought and survived, have been nothing but the Archmage's revenge," she whispered.

"Not true," the stag spoke authoritatively, "You never stopped fighting against the enchantments they placed upon you. It was your determination to resist the compulsion the Sisters placed upon you that helped lead to the Archmage's defeat upon Avalon."

Demona looked up at him, "You were with me," she stated as if realizing something.

"I broke the enchantment upon your memory," the great stag responded gently, "it was necessary for me to mediate their return." He lowered his head and gently brushed her forehead ridge with his muzzle, then blew out a warm breath ruffling her wild mane of hair. "You have a strong soul and a strong will; otherwise you would have never continued to fight against their compulsions for so long. Do not begin questioning your own strength because of what you have remembered; it was that strength that allowed you to resist killing your clan's children."

Demona looked stunned, and Kendra wasn't certain whether it was due to the giant stag comforting her or the words the stag had said, probably both she decided.

"Please tell me that man is dead," Kendra did not want to interrupt, but she needed to know whether or not he was still a threat.

Demona responded, "Angela said when Goliath tore the Eye of Odin from his head he lost control of the Grimorum Arcanorum's magic and it consumed him."

The stag lifted his head, "That is what occurred, the magic burned through his mortal body when he lost the power of the Eye."

"Good," Kendra responded, pleased. That concern out of the way, she regarded Demona thoughtfully, her mind meandering through the memories of what she had seen and heard. "There is at least one thing in your life that I don't think they planned, or even anticipated."

Demona turned her green eyes toward Kendra, and the black-haired woman was relieved to see a spark of curiosity in them. "Nightstone," she answered, "I don't see how it furthers their goals at all." She paused, "At least I don't think it does, it doesn't make you bitter or angry does it?"

The immortal gargoyle shook her head, "No, most days I look forward to going into work, it gives me something useful to do, and I often spend most of my nights and weekends working on Nightstone business as well."

Kendra nodded, she had suspected as much, "And I suspect it doesn't make you alone either, you are talking with or interacting with someone for most of the day, even if they are humans."

"Your right," Demona straightened, "Thailog and I pooled our resources together to incorporate Nightstone Unlimited after what happened on Avalon. It's possible the Weird Sisters don't even realize it exists," she theorized.

"Nightstone is yours then," Kendra said emphatically, "Something that you created, something that gives your life meaning. It makes you less angry, less bitter and less alone; you've already started to unravel the Archmage's revenge."

Demona looked hopeful for a moment, and then with startling abruptness she slid into anger. Her eyes glowing red she rose and snarled, "And that will last how long? Only until those three fey decide they have need of me again, and then they will destroy everything."

"That is what that does," the owl spirit's satisfied voice interrupted the flame-haired gargoyle before she could rant further.

The red eyes faded slightly as Demona stared at the owl, "That is what, what does?" she asked aggravated.

"One of the enchantments I did not recognize. One of the ones more subtle in nature than I'm used to associating with the Fey, it amplifies your anger, specifically it seems to double it." The owl spirit answered.

Demona stared at him for a moment before her eyes flashed bright red and she screamed, "Are not even my emotions my own?"

The great stag snorted and took a step back at this display, the unexpected movement setting the owl upon its antlers flapping. "Perhaps this is one of the first spells we should teach her how to dispel."

"That would seem wise," agreed the owl mildly after she had her balance again.

"Not that I do not want your help, but that will last how long?" Demona protested, her eyes glowing slightly with her anger, "I could not stop them from placing these enchantments on me before, what is to stop them from simply replacing these once they have need of me again. You heard what the Sisters said; they let me go only because they thought I might prove a useful tool in the future," she spat the last bitterly.

"I promised that you would not stand alone against them." The great stag spirit reminded Demona regally, "There are things that can be done to protect you from being enchanted once again."

"You can teach me ways of protecting myself?" Demona asked, the red in her eyes fading.

"There are multiple ways of achieving that end," the great stag said, "I have not yet decided which method is most suitable for you, nor do I know which you will find agreeable."

At these words, the owl hunched over and stared at the giant deer, apparently finding what he had said startling. The great stag shook its head slightly, setting the owl bobbing briefly. The owl straightened, blinked once, "Yes, there are various ways to be considered I see, we will have to consult on what is best for you. And of course what you think is best for yourself."

"I will need one day to decide," The great stag spoke. "Tomorrow we will discuss this matter further and what choices you have to make," the great stag directed to Demona. His next statement seemed directed toward the owl spirit, "Tonight we need to teach her how to see the enchantments upon herself and guide her in dispelling the two we have identified completely. Then they must leave, their bodies are growing tired, they risk damage to themselves if they stay much longer."

"Two?" the owl spirit questioned, "Oh yes the anger amplification enchantment and the enchantments they placed on her to persuade her that the only way to protect other gargoyles was by driving them away. Simple enough," she finished.

The great stag cautioned Demona, "Do not touch any of the enchantments no matter how angered you may feel. It is quite possible for you to injure yourself beyond all hope of aid if you dispel the wrong enchantment." He paused and stared at the gargoyle sternly, "If you cannot do this, it would be better for me to dispel the enchantments for you, but I would rather teach you how to do so. Can you promise not to act on your anger; will you wait for our directions?"

Demona clenched her talons in determination, "I promise, I will not act until you direct me where and how." It was easier to accept such restrictions on her actions now that she understood the Weird Sisters had meddled with her emotions as well as her actions.

The great stag's brown eyes caught and held her own gaze, "Then learn how to look deeply into the world and see the fey's work where it is present."

Green, sickly green strands of magical energies weaving around each other, and there were so many of them. No wonder Kendra had recoiled when she first sighted them, Demona wanted to recoil from herself. "What have they done to me," she raged quietly, keeping the stag's admonition foremost in her mind.

The great stag and owl didn't respond. They didn't need to; the answer was rather obvious, quite a lot.

A hand wrapped around her clenched fist, Demona glanced over and met Kendra's compassionate sapphire blue eyes, "You'll be free of all of it, it will just take some time, patience, and deliberately considered action. It's nothing I haven't seen you do already in your business decisions." The black-haired woman said, deliberately reminding the gargoyle of how she acted when it came to her company. That was where the immortal gargoyle exhibited calm, well thought out planning.

It was a timely comment. "The Weird Sisters don't have any enchantments on me that affect how I run my company," Demona realized. The realization calmed her; she did run her company well. Otherwise, Nightstone Unlimited wouldn't have become the third largest company in Manhattan within less than two years.

"Let's work on reducing some of these enchantments," said the owl spirit. "First think of holding an iron knife in your hand, feel the weight of it, the handle in your hand and the short length of iron blade. It doesn't need to be very sharp; it's the iron that does the dispelling."

Demona closed her eyes and concentrated upon creating a knife to destroy the enchantments the Weird Sisters had placed upon her. She felt her talons close around its handle, the solid weight and heft of it. She opened her eyes and looked down; the knife was heavy, the handle solid and thick as she gripped it, the thick blade almost twelve inches in length.

The flame-haired gargoyle heard an amused snort from beside her, "Kill it, kill it dead?" Kendra commented.

A grin formed on Demona's lips as she looked at the knife she had willed into being, it did seem like it could get the job done.

"Well that's a bit larger than what I was thinking of, but it will do," the owl spirit commented dryly.

The great stag spirit spoke, "I will highlight and draw out the enchantments this time. In the future we will teach you how to do this yourself, but you have neither the time nor the energy to learn tonight." One of the pulsing strands of green energy wrapped around Demona's chest began burning more brightly.

"Let's pull that out a little more so you can get at it better," the owl spirit murmured, she made a motion with her wing and the energy thread pulled slightly away from the others.

"Take your iron knife and slide it under the fey enchantment and continue pulling it away from the others," instructed the giant stag.

Demona carefully maneuvered the length of the blade as the stag instructed, realizing belatedly that perhaps a smaller knife would have been easier to use.

"Wrap the enchantment around the blade three times," the stag continued his instructions.

The immortal gargoyle carefully maneuvered the knife until the green strand was coiled around the blade three times.

"Now pull it free from you," the noble stag ordered.

Pulling sharply Demona ripped the enchantment from her, grimacing at the brief moment of disorientation that accompanied the action. The green strand hung briefly free around the blade then seemed to lose cohesion, dimming rapidly and then disappearing as if it had never been.

"That's it?" the flame-haired gargoyle asked disbelievingly.

The great stag and owl stared at her quizzically for a moment before the owl spirit offered, "You can chant a few words in Latin if you want, but it's not really needed. While nature can be loud and noticeable, it is more often quiet and unobtrusive."

Before Demona could formulate a reply to this, the great stag spoke, "Wise One, look at where that enchantment was attached, what do you see?"

"Hmm," murmured the owl before craning her head forward, "Well what is this?" she asked, and a moment later she answered herself, "Very old sorcery…very old. The amplification spell was originally layered on top of it I guess and the Fey obviously kept renewing their enchantment, but the original sorcery was left to decay."

"What are you talking about?" asked Demona looking down and trying to see what they were seeing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kendra coming closer to look as well, a concerned frown upon her face.

"We will have to teach you how to see sorcery, before you can see what we are looking at," the great stag stated. It took only a few moments for Demona and Kendra to learn the variation it was not complicated, just slightly different.

"It looks wispy, like a thin black cloth that's been frayed and torn," observed Kendra.

To Demona it looked more like the barest wisps of black cloud, but she could see the resemblance to what Kendra was describing. More important to her was when it had been placed and what it had done, "Did the Archmage cast this when I was his apprentice?" she wondered aloud.

"No way of knowing without some research," the Eagle Owl spirit answered, "Given where it is and what was cast on top of it I would guess that it did the same thing, but I might be wrong. It's not doing anything now it's too old. We can use the remains however, to discover who cast it and what it did."

Demona nodded, her mind was now whirling with more questions. She didn't like the idea of leaving it there, but she could see the owl spirit's point. If the remains were harmless and could lead them to the caster, it was best to leave it alone for now.

"We will address that later, for now we need to dispel the other enchantments and then they must leave," the great stag spoke with some urgency.

"Of course," the Eagle Owl responded, "let us move on then, now these are the enchantments that make up the compulsion they placed upon you to drive away other gargoyles. They tied them into your natural instinct to protect and then warped that instinct by persuading you that you were the danger. There are multiple enchantments, but we will deal with them in the same way, just choose one strand and begin there." A multi-stranded enchantment lit up and pulled away from the others.

The immortal gargoyle didn't need any further instructions, starting on the easiest strand to get to and dealing with it as before. As each enchantment was uprooted and dispersed, she promptly began on another. She understood the great stags hurry; she could feel herself tiring rapidly.

As the last strand faded the Eagle Owl spoke, "I believe it will be best if you remain in the wilderness for another few days while we deal with the enchantments the Weird Sisters placed upon you. You will likely have several distractions present themselves immediately upon your return. Those charged with enforcing the law will need to speak with you about what happened and you Demona will have responsibilities toward your company. One of my chosen has her home on the shore of the lake southwest of your current location. If you remain here she can bring supplies to make the stay easier."

"That might be a good idea anyway, if they ever find the plane they will know what distance we had to cover to make it back. It might be a good idea if we stayed away enough days to make it seem like we traveled a reasonable amount each day instead of the fifty to sixty miles we did travel." Kendra pointed out, giving voice to a concern of hers.

Demona looked back and forth between Kendra and the two spirits, "You believe we can dispel most of these within the next few days?" she asked indicating the tangled web of fey magic within her that was only slightly decreased by the removal of the two enchantments.

"Most of what remains appears to be the enchantments that bind you and the human male called Macbeth together and grant each of you immortality, and the more recent enchantments that allow you to become human during the day. I believe we can determine what of the remaining fey magic are manipulation or compulsion enchantments and remove them within the next few days," stated the great stag confidently.

Demon nodded reluctantly, "Very well, I just hope those idiot managers of mine don't believe I've died."

"No, they are looking for you even now," the Eagle Owl stated, "The chosen I spoke of has heard about the search for you."

The immortal gargoyle glanced at Kendra, "The chances of them finding the plane are high then," she turned back to the owl spirit, "When did you want us to come back?"

The great stag spoke, "Come at the beginning of each night after the sun has set. Farewell"

"Farewell," echoed the owl, the spirit realm began disappearing into mist.

"Wait what are you?" Asked Demona staring into the great stag's eyes

"My kind never had a name when my children were living, but the humans now call us Irish Elk or simply Giant Deer," answered the great stag's voice even as he disappeared.

The gargoyle found herself drawing in a deep breath of steam-filled air, as she heard Kendra's drumming come to a stop. She realized they had left the spirit realm and were once again in the living world as she opened her eyes and saw the interior of the lodge.

Kendra pulled further open blanket lodge door and crawled out, only pausing to look around and verify that they were still completely alone. Then with a gasp, the black-haired woman plunged into the cold water for a quick moment and then grabbed a blanket and went to sit by the coals where she began to build up the fire again.

Demona stared at Kendra in astonishment for a moment then followed her example, to her surprise after being over heated in the lodge the water was a brisk shock that was not unpleasant. Demona shook the water from herself and then went to join Kendra in letting the warmth of the fire dry them off while the survival blanket kept them from getting too chilled.

Kendra handed Demona a food bar, the black-haired woman was already eating her one of own, "Eat this, in a bit I will go and start something warm for us to eat."

Demona accepted the bar gratefully she was rather hungry. Kendra got up after finishing hers, dressed and went back to the shelter to begin cooking. After awhile Demona covered the lodge fire, reclaimed the blanket covering the lodge opening, and started back toward the shelter. It was warmer in the forest than it was near the river, the gargoyle noticed as she wound her way through the pines. As she approached the roughly made shelter, Demona eyed it critically; perhaps they should considered building something more permanent since they were to be staying here a few days.

Kendra had finished preparing the stew and had placed it among the coals to cook, she then came over to Demona and asked, "Mind if I sit with you?" Demona opened her blanket and Kendra layered her blanket with it then snuggled against Demona while they waited for the stew.

Demona had been silent since Kendra had asked to sit next to her, enmeshed in her own thoughts, but she finally commented quietly, "You didn't need to ask Kendra, I like having you near me. I would think you would know that after what we experienced in the spirit realm."

Kendra smiled gently, "I know we felt each other's emotions, but you said you wanted to keep this casual and I didn't want to take things for granted."

Demona shook her head, "You know I feel…" the gargoyle paused, she couldn't continue, how could she when she didn't know how she felt. Finally she admitted, "I want more than just a mutual satisfaction of our physical needs. I never mean to imply that it was just for one night Kendra. I just don't know…"

Kendra filled in, "Don't know how not casual you're feeling exactly? It's nice to know I have company in my confusion if that's the case."

Demona smiled wryly, "You have company. My emotions are a jumbled mess at the moment."

"Not really surprising considering everything," Kendra commented and leaned her head on Demona's shoulder. The two sat in companionable silence. "By the way," Kendra said after a few minutes, "I thought those enchantments would be more difficult to get rid of too. I don't know what I was expecting, but something more than…weeding."

Demona snorted in amused surprise and then chuckled aloud at the word choice. "But that's what it was, wasn't it," she realized.

"Pretty much," responded Kendra. The black-haired woman was silent for a moment, before turning to the redhead next to her and asking seriously, "How are you doing?"

The immortal gargoyle drew in a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled it. She didn't answer immediately, "I don't know," she finally answered softly. "I should be angry, but I'm starting to think maybe something was damaged when I removed that amplification enchantment. I can feel some anger, but it's so much less than what I would expect given the circumstances."

Kendra frowned thoughtfully, "I wonder," she mused, and the redheaded gargoyle turned a curious gaze her way. The black-haired woman continued, "I wonder if it's just the fact that you're used to feeling a much greater amount of anger. You probably got used to it over the centuries, feeling that much anger each time I mean. So now that you're feeling a normal amount, well it just probably seems like too little because it's not what you got used to anymore," she offered.

Demona frowned thoughtfully, "That could be I guess, it certainly sounds reasonable." She looked relieved. She gazed into the flickering flames, her face marked by sadness, "Otherwise I feel lost, confused, its…" she sighed, "It's very hard to accept that for almost all of the past thousand years they've controlled almost everything I've done, the things I've felt, and all for their and the Archmage's revenge. So many deaths, so much pain, so many, many bitter lonely years," her voice became bitterly self-mocking, "And for most of it I thought I was pursuing my vengeance against the humans…how completely wrong I was."

Kendra shifted to face the redhead, she stroked through the silken wild hair, and cupped the beautiful face, "And yet there is the promise of better times ahead for you, a chance to undo all their revenge."

Demona leaned into the caress, her eye fixed on Kendra's face, "How do you undo a thousand years of revenge?" she asked, her voice was bitter, but she also looked as if she hoped Kendra possessed the answer to her question.

"They wanted you to be angry, bitter and alone. If you are none of those things, then they have none of their revenge." Kendra answered simply.

"That simple?" Demona asked her voice doubtful.

"No," Kendra replied gently, "I know it's not that simple, but it's the only place you can start. The past is the past, it's only the present and the future that we have to work with, and is there anything that wrong about being happy, fulfilled, building friendships and perhaps even more?"

_Her eyes are so blue,_ thought Demona, as she stared into the black haired woman's face and considered her words. "No I guess there isn't," she whispered in reply as she leaned closer. She hadn't expected to feel any desire after what happened tonight, but here it was rising swift and hot within her. Their lips met briefly before Kendra pulled away, Demona retreated immediately confused.

Kendra's hand upon her shoulder stopped her, the black-haired woman said, "I want to, but honestly I don't want to subject you to being that close to me until I've bathed and had a chance to rinse out the various micro flora and fauna setting up housekeeping in my mouth."

Demona blinked, and then began laughing. "Too true," she admitted thinking of her own state. She frowned, they were using the only container they had to cook the stew, "I guess after we eat we can warm some water for you, I can stand the cold of the stream to wash, but you can't."

"Mmm, before tonight no, but I can now," Kendra said, "Most of the lessons the priestess taught me last night were about how to control my body. I can deal with the cold for long enough to bathe providing we eat afterward." She leaned forward and peered at the stew, "Why don't we go now, this should be done by the time we get back."

They hadn't discussed what Kendra had been taught, so this information caught Demona by surprise. "Alright," she agreed belatedly, they rose and started toward the river. The gargoyle glanced at the woman walking beside her and wondered what exactly she had learned from the priestess.

The clear, swiftly moving water of the stream was cold. No matter one was a gargoyle and the other a shamaness with the ability to increase their body heat, both hurried about their business rinsing their mouths, and using their fingers to roughly clean their teeth, then rubbing briskly at their bodies cleaning as best they could without soap.

Demona chuckled as she followed Kendra's swiftly moving bare figure through the forest. The woman hadn't wanted to put her clothes on her wet body so she was streaking through the trees, and the gargoyle was quite shamelessly enjoying the view though she was having trouble keeping up Kendra was moving so quickly.

Kendra was wrapping the survival blankets around herself when the immortal gargoyle stepped into the small area lit by their fire. "I've got a better idea," Demona said huskily, extending her wings forward and holding out her arms invitingly. Kendra rose, letting the silvery blankets fall to the ground and stepped into her arms. The sapphire blue eyes closed and a sigh of pleasure escaped from the rose-colored lips as Demona pulled the black-haired woman against her and wrapped her wings about them both.


	10. Chapter 10

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 10**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/24/08

* * *

Kendra's skin was surprisingly warm, Demona had expected the woman's naked flight through the cold night air would have chilled her. The soft press of breast and thigh against her skin instantly rekindled the immortal gargoyle's desire. However, the aroma wafting from the cook pot intruded before she could act upon it. 

Kendra turned her head toward the fire, "We need to eat," she said regretfully. She reached up and touched Demona's lips with one finger, trailing it lightly along their fullness, "Hold this thought though, this feels…" she closed her eyes for a moment and smiled, "absolutely wonderful," she finished huskily. She opened her blue eyes and with a protesting groan pushed away from the flame-haired gargoyle's warm embrace. "Food, then…" she muttered to herself kneeling by the fire and grabbing one of the shallow bowl/plates that had been inside the campfire cook pot when they found it in the survival kit.

_Oh yes_, Demona thought to herself, watching the play of firelight over the dusky bare skin, the flickering highlighting of breast and length of smoothly muscled thigh, the hidden shadowing of flat stomach. _Food and then_.

Kendra apportioned the stew into two servings, handed one to Demona, and then pulled one of the survival blankets around her as she sat next to the fire to eat.

Demona ate, but her mind wasn't on the stewed meat she was consuming. She couldn't keep her eyes off Kendra; the flickering light of the fire was inexorably reminding her of another scene by another fire. In the gargoyles mind the memory replayed, firelight flickered over muscular shoulders and the arms raised above the woman's head. It gleamed off the black hair spread wantonly across shoulders and bared back. It highlighted the play of muscles under the dusky skin as Kendra moved in slow sensual writhe and soft panting breaths as she pleaded in her dream. The slow sensual baring of the woman's neck, the soft yielding submissiveness of her pose so at contrast to the graceful, strong fierceness Demona knew the woman possessed.

"What are you thinking," Kendra's whisper drew Demona from her memories. The black-haired woman had finished her stew; the empty plate was sitting on the forest floor next to the fire.

"Your dream, I haven't been able to get out of my mind," the flame-haired gargoyle admitted, "You don't know how close I came to making it a reality that night, I had to leave."

Kendra drew in a sharp breath and her blue eyes darkened, "And now," she asked, her voice held a hint of challenge.

A swift rush of desire urged Demona to rise and claim Kendra, but she fought it, she couldn't commit to that type of a promise. "I can't. I'd be lying if I claimed I could make that type of commitment to you right now, and I know you aren't ready either. Less than an hour ago we admitted that we wanted whatever is between us to be more than just casual, but weren't certain what else we wanted it to be. Neither of us is ready to promise forever." Her voice held her regret; she really wished that she could promise that, her body definitely wanted her to. The startled look on Kendra's face following that statement revealed the other woman's surprise.

"Claiming me tonight would be something like an engagement or marriage?" Kendra sought clarification.

The gargoyle blinked, hearing it put bluntly like that she wasn't as certain anymore what it would mean between them. "Something like that," she answered hesitantly. "Between two gargoyles it would." _At least between a male and a female gargoyle it would_, her mind added.

Kendra looked troubled, "Demona," she started then paused frowning thoughtfully, "I need to order my thoughts here for a moment," she said frankly.

Uncertain why what she had said had disturbed Kendra, the redheaded gargoyle caped her wings about herself nervously.

The black haired woman started speaking again after almost a full minute of silence. "First," she gazed directly into Demona's green eyes, "It wouldn't mean that to me. Quite honestly, that sounds too much like ownership assertion to me." Kendra paused letting that point sink in for a moment. She took in a deep breath, before continuing, "I want you to claim me, to dominate me," she admitted, "but I don't want you to own me or think that you have the right to. I'll never want that. Each time I let you claim me it will always be for only that time, it will never mean you have some type of right or expectation of that in the future."

Kendra's words made Demona very aware of the fact that the black-haired woman wasn't only human. There was the untamed spirit of a jaguar in there with the human and right now it was making itself very clearly known. Kendra's sapphire blue eyes held all the untamed wildness and strength that had attracted Demona so strongly to the woman in the first place.

The immortal gargoyle nodded, "I can understand and accept that. I guess I've never really thought much about the inter-personal dynamics of my past relationships. Things were very…" she paused, thinking about Goliath and Thailog, "traditional in my two previous relationships." Very traditional, she thought to herself as she reflected on how both Goliath and Thailog rarely paid attention to her opinions and desires and how their decisions had always been the final ones. Since Thailog was a clone of Goliath, it really shouldn't have been surprising to her that the two males acted almost exactly alike in that respect.

"Very traditional?" asked Kendra staring at her with a puzzled look.

Demona grimaced, "They rarely listened to me and their word was the final one in any decision making."

"You don't really strike me as the type to go for that," Kendra remarked bemused.

The immortal gargoyle snorted, "No I guess I'm not, both relationships ended rather badly." She chuckled dryly, trying to kill her first ex and holding the second to keep him from escaping as they both fell into a fiery inferno did count as ending badly didn't it?

Kendra cocked her head slightly, and gave the gargoyle a curious look, but let the moment pass. She would much rather discuss what might happen between them, rather than what had been between Demona and any previous lovers. "I would rather have a relationship between equals, where we listen to one another and where our decisions reflect the fact that we care about each other's point of view."

Demona's eyes widened in surprise, she hadn't expected this subject to come up so soon. "That sounds appealing," she admitted, and it did, it sounded very appealing as well as being rather novel. Tentatively she asked, "And fidelity?" no longer wanting to take that for granted, but really hoping the answer was yes. She didn't think she could deal with the idea of Kendra being with another while with her as well.

The black-haired woman snorted, "Reputations have a hard time dying don't' they," she reflected, "Yes, right after my mother died I did go through a few girlfriends, but I never cheated on any of them. That phase in my life didn't last for very long. I think I was trying to drive away my feelings of loss by being with them, but not surprisingly, since I didn't love any of them and they didn't love me either that didn't work out very well. I haven't been with anyone for two years now."

Demona hadn't actually known this; she had just seen the pictures, not known exactly when Kendra had been with any of the women. From what Kendra had just said, the immortal gargoyle deduced they had all been within a rather short time span. It didn't really matter to her, Kendra had just given her the answer she needed, and the knot of worry that had started to form in her chest unwound.

Kendra continued, "As far as I'm concerned, I'm involved in the very beginning of a relationship with you and you have the right to expect me to be faithful to you while we figure out where this is going between us and how permanent we want it to be. I hope you feel the same way," she eyed the gargoyle questioningly.

"Yes, we are in a relationship, and yes I will be faithful to you," Demona had no trouble answering without hesitation. She might not be certain exactly what she felt for Kendra, but considering she hadn't been intimate with anyone but Goliath and Thailog, to her last night mean that she and Kendra were now in a relationship.

Kendra eyed her thoughtfully, "I won't be owned, but that has nothing to do with my ability to be faithful. Fidelity is about trust in a relationship. People who feel they have to possess someone to make sure they stay faithful are really saying they don't trust you to be faithful unless they can directly control you, that they can watch and verify that you're not being unfaithful." She continued, her voice taking on overtones of outrage, "That's not real trust, and if the two you were with treated you like that…like they had to possess you, to own you, then they didn't really trust you like they should have, or like you deserved to be trusted." She added less angrily, "At least that's my opinion on the subject."

Demona almost replied, almost said something about Goliath and Thailog, almost said something about how Goliath had not done that he had just taken her for granted once they were together. She didn't though; as charming as she found Kendra's outrage on her behalf, she didn't want to get sidetracked into a discussion about the two males. Not out in the middle of the woods in the cold, and definitely not while Kendra was sitting naked with just a thin blanket around her huddled by the fire. She crossed the few feet of distance that separated them, and knelt down beside the black-haired woman.

"I suspect your right about that," that was all Demona wanted to say on the subject for right now, as there were much more important things on her mind. "I don't want to own you, I…" she stopped, uncertain how to explain what she wanted when the desire she felt for Kendra was so different from anything else she had ever experienced before.

Sapphire blue eyes looked questioningly into her own; she reached out a taloned hand and ran it through the silky midnight black long hair. "The first time I saw you in my office I was surprised by how beautiful you were and how much strength and power I could sense from you. The second time we sparred I was drawn by your strength and gracefulness, and when I pinned you on the mat." She shifted closer, lowered her lips to Kendra's.

The kiss started out hesitantly, then Demona felt the woman in her arms shift and Kendra's arms wound around her neck. The lips underneath hers returned her kiss passionately as she gathered the woman closer and caped her wings about Kendra to shield her from the cold night air. She broke the kiss, ignoring the black-haired woman's protesting moan and trailed kisses across her jaw to her ear. She took the lobe between her teeth and nipped it gently.

"I thought I was rubbing in my victory when I told you to surrender," she whispered in Kendra's ear. She felt a shudder run thru the woman in her arms at these words, "And then you did and I realized how much you were willing to surrender to me." Demona pulled back enough to look into Kendra's passion darkened blue eyes, "Something happened that had never happened to me in a thousand years." The blue eyes widened in surprise, Kendra apparently hadn't suspected this. Demona continued, "I wanted to stay there, I wanted to hold you down, I wanted to touch you, I felt desire for a human for the first time in my life."

Kendra stared at her for a moment, and then she whispered, "Let's stay out here. The wind has died down. It won't be much warmer in the shelter than it is here by the fire and we can bring the blankets out here as well."

Demona glanced around the clearing, Kendra was right the wind had died completely down and if they stayed next to the fire they would probably be warmer than in the shelter. "Alright," she agreed.

As Demona pulled the silvery blankets and arranged them by the fire, Kendra placed more wood onto the fire. The wood caught fire quickly, the renewed flames casting a bright warm glow about the small clearing. "Besides, I want to see you," the black-haired woman said huskily, her eyes locked on the gargoyle's form.

Demona felt a thrill of arousal shoot through her; it wasn't just the words, but the desire filled look that accompanied them. Her hands went to her halter-top and then her loincloth, dropping each to the ground, "Then look." Kendra's gaze was like a heated caress across her body, every nerve ending seemed to come alive and prick as the darkened sapphire blue gaze wandered over her.

"You are so beautiful in either form," Kendra's voice was low and roughened with need. She crossed the few feet that separated them, leaving only a few inches between their bodies. Demona was actually slightly taller than Kendra now, the transformation having added several inches due to the physical differences between the gargoyle foot and the human foot. "I still can't see all of you," she whispered as her fingers lifted to the beaten gold band that covered the gargoyle's brow ridge, she hesitated waiting for permission.

Demona tilted her head down, "go ahead," she whispered. Macbeth had been the last person to see her bare forehead ridges she realized, but no one except for Goliath had ever touched her there. Thoughts of how it would feel to have the Kendra's fingers trailing over her ridges had her hoping the black-haired woman would be the second.

Kendra carefully pulled the golden band away from Demona's brow, exposing the bony ridge above the gargoyle's green eyes. It took a brief moment to kneel and place the band carefully upon one of the silvery blankets next to the fire. Demona was still standing with her head tilted slightly downward, her tail moving in a lazy arc behind her. Kendra reached up and trailed her fingers lightly over the ridges exploring them. She breathed in a breath when the flame-haired gargoyle closed her eyes in pleasure and leaned into the touch.

"Is this sensitive because you keep it covered, or is it just sensitive and that's why you keep it covered?" Kendra asked softly, not wanting to disturb the current mood.

Demona grinned lazily, her eyes still closed, "Brow ridges are sensitive, but mainly I use the band to keep my hair out of my face."

"Ah," Kendra murmured as she continued stroking Demona's face eye ridges then she trailed her fingers along the rigid spine that formed the upper edge of the gargoyle's ears. She heard Demona's soft moan as she stroked along the gargoyle's ears and she smiled, obviously this felt good for both humans and gargoyles. She pushed her fingers into the mass of flame red hair and covered Demona's red lips with her own, pressing against the gargoyle's warm body. Demona's arms wrapped around her and then she felt Demona's wings fold around her encasing her within their warmth. She shuddered as she realized that she was literally surrounded by her lover. Heated tingling arousal shot through her as if something had sparked trails of fire along all the nerve endings and she groaned into Demona's mouth.

Demona pulled away from the black-haired woman's soft lips long enough to comment, "You really like having my wings around you don't you." She growled softly when Kendra bit lightly upon her chin.

"Yes," Kendra whispered into the gargoyles skin, she could tell that it was thicker than her own human skin, but it was soft as well, and she wanted to test its resilience to her teeth as well as its taste with her mouth. "You realize," she bit lightly on the gargoyle's jaw, "that you surround me," she trailed her lips up to the gargoyle's ear. "That I'm," she bit lightly near the earring evoking another soft growl then flicked her tongue over the same area, "wrapped inside of you."

Kendra's words caused the muscles deep within Demona to clench, tightening and coiling in desire. She could feel herself grow wet and slick in reaction to them, her heart pounded in her chest, and without conscious thought, her hands moved lower. She just remembered not to grip too tightly with her talons as she ground her hips into Kendra's. She hadn't ever thought about it that way, but Kendra was right she was surrounded by the gargoyle's body. Demona became hyper aware of the feel of the woman in her arms, the press of breast and thigh, and the feel of soft tender skin against the membrane of her wings. She had reveled in these same sensations earlier, but she hadn't placed it in the same context that she did now, now it felt profoundly intimate in a way it hadn't before. She didn't want to let Kendra go, she wanted to take the woman like this, wanted to feel her cry out and shudder in pleasure while wrapped inside her wings.

But how? Demona's mind wrapped around the problem, she already knew she couldn't use her talons as she had used her fingers in her human form, and she had already thought about how her tail to please Kendra. This was more of a logistics problem, before she had imagined Kendra on her stomach underneath her, now she wanted to be able to touch the woman while holding her inside her wings. Her mind sorted through various possibilities, discarding each as too difficult or more often too uncomfortable for one or both of them.

"What are you thinking so hard about," Kendra asked, amusement clear.

Demona smiled down at her, "How to do this while holding you, but I think I have an idea now." She knelt slowly, supporting Kendra's back with her wing forearms, and guiding the woman's hips so that she sat on top of the gargoyle's parted thighs. Kendra's legs were on the outside of her own, and her own legs were parted enough for her tail to easily slip under and up between them. Demona stared down at the woman on her lap, taking in the soft breasts, the shadowed intimate softness spread so open for her touch between Kendra's parted thighs. "Oh, yes," she whispered huskily, "I think this will work quite nicely."

Many minutes later…

"Give yourself to me," Demona commanded as she bit deeply into the thick muscles where Kendra's neck and shoulder met.

Kendra yowled hoarsely, "Demona!" sounding remarkably cat like. She shuddered, convulsing strongly in her pleasure.

That was enough to send Demona over the edge; she released Kendra's shoulder as the beginning crest of her orgasm caught her. She barely registered Kendra's movement as the woman lifted her head; turned, and bit into the same place on Demona's shoulder where the gargoyle had bitten her. The sweet, lancing pain of the mating bite hammered into Demona and she cried out Kendra's name and arched into her lover as her pleasure intensified and deepened.

Soft gentle licks over the bite marks on her shoulder brought the immortal gargoyle back. Even her wings were still quivering Demona realized as she drew in a shaky breath still recovering from the intensity of her release. Incredulous she looked over at her lover, confused as to how Kendra's human teeth had managed that.

Kendra's sapphire blue eyes met hers, "It worked," she whispered looking at the bite marks on Demona's shoulder.

The gargoyle saw the flash of fangs within Kendra's mouth, "What exactly worked?" she inquired looking blankly at her lover's mouth, unable to believe what she had seen.

"Partial shape change, another thing the priestess taught me the other night though I gathered she hadn't really explored that ability very much," the black haired woman answered. "Still it's not that important right now, hold me?"

Demona realized the quivering she was feeling was not entirely from herself. She looked at Kendra's shoulder in concern and saw some blood there, but the bite marks were already healed. Concerned, Demona asked, "Are you alright?" the topic of partial shape changes and fangs could be addressed later the gargoyle decided this was much more important.

Kendra replied, "I'm still shaking inside."

Demona pulled Kendra more tightly to her body, "Did I hurt you?"

Kendra shook her head, answering hoarsely, "No, no you didn't hurt me at all. I've just wanted that for so long and no one could give that to me until you." Kendra wrapped her arms around Demona and held her tightly.

Demona said softly "No, I guess your other lover's couldn't do that for you could they?" Kendra shook her head and then buried her face in Demona's shoulder and started crying softly. Demona cradled her, rearranging her wings so that they covered more of her lover's back, "Why are you crying," she asked softly.

Kendra shook her head, "Too… too many things to feel at once. Too strong just hold me, protect me for right now."

A sweet welling emotion filled Demona's chest, the immortal gargoyle reassured the woman cradled in her arms, "I've got you. I'll keep you safe."

Kendra's tears dried after another minute, she admitted softly, "I've never surrendered any part of myself to anyone before, it was sort of frightening, but it felt so freeing at the same time, not to have to always be in control of myself." Kendra sighed and fell silent.

Shortly afterward, Kendra's breathing changed and Demona could feel her slip into sleep. Demona kept her wings tight around them both protecting Kendra as she slept and only moved to pull up the blankets to cover them both.

Demona did not sleep, and in the dim light she pondered Kendra's words. At first she had thought that Kendra meant that she was the first to be able to do the mating bite, but then she realized that the woman was talking about surrendering. It moved her deeply to hear that she was the only one Kendra had ever surrendered herself to. That Kendra felt Demona was strong enough that the black-haired woman didn't have to be in control all the time.

The immortal gargoyle looked down at the woman wrapped in her arms and stared into her sleeping face, stubbornness, strength, honor were all revealed there in the square lines of jaw and chin. Tonight she had given Kendra what they had both wanted and in a surprising turn had received just as much. She had dominated and Kendra had willfully surrendered, and they both had been shaken by the passion and intensity of the moment.

All of these thoughts flowed disjointedly though Demona's mind, the last remaining with a sudden clarity. At the last when they had held onto one another desperately, in the moment that they both had shuddered in release, just who had surrendered to whom? In that moment hadn't they simply held onto each other, needing the strength and solidity of the other? In that moment, had they both experienced the same thing? When the world seemed to fall away and the protective walls shattered had both of them felt that curious mixture of vulnerability and freedom?


	11. Chapter 11

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 11**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 02/29/08

* * *

Elisa stepped up the castle stairs to the battlements, it was almost dawn and the clan should be back from their patrol soon. She hoped they would get back in enough time for her to fill them in on the information the RCMP had sent earlier in the day about Dominique Destine's kidnapping. The detective didn't know whether to interpret the information she had found out earlier as good or bad, the more details she heard about this kidnapping the less it made sense to her.

Reaching the top of the stairs, she wandered across the flagstones of the courtyard and leaned against the parapet, it had been another long night in a week of them and she was looking forward to getting home and getting some sleep. Matt and she were getting closer to the Quarrymen, to understanding their organizational structure, and to learning where exactly Jon Canmore aka John Castaway was getting his funding to supply them with weapons. With the information their investigation had recently uncovered it probably wouldn't be that long before she would need to bring out her alter ego Sally. The detective wasn't looking forward to the days and nights of undercover work with those gargoyle-hating fanatics, but with any luck, what she learned from the inside would break the case and get the Taskforce the information they needed to bring down the organization.

So deep was she within her thoughts, as she stared over the city, that she didn't immediately notice Hudson coming up the stairs behind her. It was Bronx bounding up the stairs behind the old gargoyle and running over to her that stirred Elisa out of her thoughts. "Hey boy how are you doing tonight," she asked as she rubbed his head and ears affectionately. She looked over and noticed Hudson standing a few feet away, "How are you this evening Hudson?" she asked.

He smiled, "I'm doing well, lass." He looked at her curiously, "What was dwelling in your thoughts so heavily that you didn't notice me when I came up the stairs?"

"The Quarrymen investigation, Matt and I are getting close to discovering where the money they are using to fund their organization is coming from," Elisa answered.

Hudson nodded, "That's good then," his tone made the statement more of a question.

"Very good," she affirmed, "with any luck we will be able to shut them down soon." The arrival of the rest of the clan winging over the battlements interrupted their conversation.

"Elisa," Goliath greeted her warmly, but there was concern in his eyes and she knew it was because of the kidnapping. The rest of the clan landed in a lose semi-circle behind him.

Elisa's eyes went to the feminine form standing behind the large clan leader. Angela appeared worried, and Broadway was regarding her with a concerned expression as he stood supportively beside her. The detective sighed; this entire situation was not going to get any easier, "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police informed us this afternoon that they found the missing plane, and that the storm that swept in from the Hudson Bay forced it down. The searchers found the bodies of the three kidnappers in the cockpit; all three men died instantly when the plane crashed." She continued quickly before anyone could interrupt after hearing that alarming news, "They didn't find Demona or Kendra Canmore, but they did find the cage they had been kept in and it was damaged enough in the crash for them to get out. The search team said that the plane had been thoroughly ransacked for supplies and that Demona and Kendra took survival gear and food rations with them as well as the kidnappers' weapons."

"So mother took Kendra Canmore with her?" Angela looked surprised.

"All the evidence points in that direction," Elisa admitted.

Hudson asked, "Do you think this was a real kidnapping or something Demona arranged that went bad?"

Elisa hesitated, there were things she was hearing from the Taskforce's Quarrymen investigation that caused her to suspect that the organization was linked with the kidnapping. Matt hadn't mentioned it to the detectives investigating the kidnapping yet, but he might have to soon, and that would bring up some uncomfortable questions about why the Quarrymen had targeted Dominique Destine who was not a known gargoyle sympathizer. "I think the kidnapping was real, and that Jon Canmore and his Quarrymen were behind it."

"But Kendra Canmore is his kin," Hudson protested, "Surely he wouldn't want to harm her."

"He blamed you guys for his shooting of his brother. I don't think he's that mentally stable right now and if she was with Demona…" her voice trailed off meaningfully.

Angela questioned, "So you think Kendra being with Demona would have been enough for him to forget that she is of his clan?"

Elisa said grimly, "There was one cage in that plane and the searchers found both red hair and black hair in it indicating that both women were imprisoned in it. So yes, I think it was enough."

The entire clan was silent for a moment as they considered that shocking idea.

"But I don't understand," Lexington spoke up going back to the first piece of information, "Demona hates humans, what so different about Kendra Canmore that Demona would take her with her?"

"Yea," Brooklyn added, "first she agrees to spar with her now this. What could Demona need Kendra Canmore for that she would go through so much trouble to keep her around?"

Elisa shifted uneasily, there had been one thing she had thought of, but the Angela had found out about Demona's scheme rendering that idea very unlikely.

"Elisa?" Goliath's inquired evidently having caught sight of her expression.

She shook her head, "Nothing really, I did think of a possible explanation, but then Demona pulled her scheme with the Assassin so…the idea I had doesn't make sense anymore."

A flash of pain crossed Angela's face at this reminder of her mother's betrayal; it quickly disappeared, replaced with resolve. "What explanation did you think of?" she asked determinedly.

"Well as I said it doesn't really make much sense now, but Kendra knows all of the Canmore family history. She knows about the hunters and the reasons behind why they've hunted Demona for all this time. Kendra's very passionate about the fact that the Canmore's are responsible for almost all of it, that they had no reasonable justification for going after Demona in the first place." Elisa looked back at Angela, "It crossed my mind that perhaps Demona was keeping Kendra around so she could tell this to you."

Angela's frowned angrily, "She was planning on using Kendra to persuade me to feel sympathetic towards her you mean, to believe that her hatred of humans is justified."

Elisa nodded, "But as I said that doesn't really make sense now, not with what happened."

Lexington commented, "So why did Demona take Kendra with her?"

Elisa shrugged, "I don't know," she said. "But knowing why isn't the most critical issue right now. The plane went down three hundred miles north of the nearest town. They've got three hundred miles of snow-covered, rough terrain to cross with very few supplies. Demona did Kendra no favors by taking her with her; they would have been rescued today if they had just stayed with the plane." The detective paused, gave a frustrated sigh, before she continued, "I can understand why they left though, they had no way of knowing rescue was coming." She shook her head, "Three hundred miles though, there's no guarantee that Kendra can make it that far even if Demona is actually trying to help her, much less if she doesn't really care."

"So how long before…" Broadway's voice trailed off for a moment as he glanced at Angela in concern, "how long do they think it will take them to travel that far?" he restated his question.

"The Mounties are hoping they will be able to find them with their search and rescue planes. If they can make it themselves the earliest their estimating their arrival is in six to seven more days." Elisa answered.

The clan stared at one another. Brooklyn shook his head sadly, "that's a lot of days." It was all he said, but everyone knew what he wasn't saying, it was a lot of days for Demona to decide that it wasn't worth it to continue helping a human.

"Yes, that's a lot of days," Elisa agreed worriedly.

Goliath stirred finally. The detective thought he looked as confused by this turn of events as she was. None of them had foreseen this, and it made her wonder what they didn't know about Kendra Canmore that Demona did. On the other hand, it was more likely there was nothing and Demona would walk out of the Canadian wilderness with a tale of how Kendra had suffered a tragic accident along the way, the detective thought with a flash of anger. She glanced toward the one gargoyle she expected to be having the most difficulty with this news. Angela was leaning against Broadway, the young female's wings were caped around her body and she looked miserable. Broadway had his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders.

"Then we will hope that they arrive safely," Goliath stated, drawing Elisa's attention away from the younger couple, "for there is little else we can do. In the meantime dawn is coming," he turned toward the lone human standing among them, "and you should sleep Elisa, you look tired."

"I'm going to do that now," the she agreed as she turned to leave. She wanted to stop and say something to Angela, but she didn't know what she could say to make this situation any better for the younger female.

* * *

"Breakfast is ready," Dominique's voice woke Kendra. The black-haired woman stared disoriented for a moment at the shelter walls before she remembered waking early in the morning when Demona's painful dawn transformation had intruded upon their sleep. Afterwards they had moved the blankets and themselves back inside the shelter.

She grabbed her clothes and crawled out of the shelter, pausing to stretch out her neck and back which were protesting the lack of a mattress. "Morning," she greeted Dominique with a warm smile, her thoughts unerringly going to the night they had shared.

The redhead kneeling by the fire looked up, "good morning," she responded. The welcoming smile upon her face shaded into amusement as she regarded Kendra who was still as naked as she had been the night before. _Definitely_, she thought to herself, admiring the strong, limber lines of her lover, _she does not have a strong nudity taboo_. Then she caught the faintly repulsed look on the black-haired woman's face as she regarded the clothing in her hands. "I'm hoping that supplies includes clothing," Dominique commented, referring to the eagle owl spirits promise that one of her chosen was bringing them supplies today.

"One can hope," Kendra replied, as she resignedly put on the same clothes she had been wearing for the past four days. She had rinsed them in the river, but still it wasn't the same as actually washing them. "Thanks," she said as she accepted the plate of stewed meat, she eyed it without much appreciation, she liked meat, but four days of nothing but meat and ration bars was about two days too many. "I wonder if he or she will bring some food," she looked at the forest, "or maybe they know enough about this area to tell us if there's edible roots or something that we can add to our meals."

"Are you telling me you don't like my stew?" asked Dominique sounding piqued.

Kendra stared at her uncertainly, "No, of course not," she added apologetically, "I really appreciate that you got up this morning and cooked it for us. I just meant that…" her voice trailed off as she caught sight of the redhead's sly grin. "Aww, very funny Demona, you can't tell me you don't want something to eat besides caribou meat and ration bars too."

Dominique stared at Kendra for a moment; then she chuckled, remarking, "You know that's the first time you've called me by my true name during the day when you weren't calling it out in pleasure," she ended smugly.

The black-haired woman blushed, she asked shyly, "Would you rather I called you Demona?"

These odd moments of shy uncertainty always caught the immortal gargoyle by surprise; Kendra was usually so self-confident and bold with everyone. She realized she had never seen Kendra act shyly around anyone else, only she, and she found that rather endearing. "When we are alone, yes I would actually," the redhead answered.

Kendra nodded, "Alright then," she replied and turned her attention to the stew.

Dominique regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before turning back to the cook pot and for her own breakfast. She frowned at the brown soup, Kendra was right a meat only diet was not that appetizing, but then again she knew from bitter personal experience that it definitely beat starving. She sat down with her plate and eyed Kendra curiously, "So, partial shapeshifting?" she asked.

The black-haired woman nodded, pausing to clear her mouth before answering, "Apparently those with the jaguar spirit are very skilled in controlling their bodies and their shapeshifting ability. It has something to do with the jaguar's chosen being warrior centric and solely focused on physical abilities."

"Apparently?" commented Dominique surprised, "You don't know? I thought you said the priestess taught you everything she knew?" she frowned, concerned.

Kendra got a faraway look in her eye, "I thought she had, but the more I think about what I learned the less I'm certain that she did. I'm really starting to get the impression that jaguars are expected to be self-starters and she gave me the equivalent of basic swimming lessons and then threw me into the pool to see what I did with them."

Dominique stared for a moment, "So you're just supposed to figure it out for yourself now?" She asked, her voice betraying her incredulity.

"She did give me a lot of information," Kendra responded her tone slightly defensive, "like how to increase my metabolism to ignore the cold, how to control my healing ability if I get hospitalized and need to hide it, how to heal faster, how to be stronger, faster and quicker than I have been in my human form." Kendra paused to take a breath, "In short she gave me a lot of information about how to modify my human body to have most of the same abilities I do when I'm in my jaguar form." After a short pause for that information to sink in Kendra continued, "In regards to shapeshifting though, she gave me the basics and I think the rest of it is up to me to explore depending on whether or not I feel like experimenting with it."

"Experimenting how," the redhead asked, more intrigued now than annoyed on Kendra's behalf.

Kendra pursed her lips thoughtfully, "Well…I know I have to stay within the basic jaguar body shape, no going around looking like a lion or tiger, but outside of that…" she trailed off and shrugged. "I managed to only change my teeth last night which confirms that I can do partial body changes. I suspect that I can also choose other jaguar coat colors, it's just that black," she pointed to her black hair, "will always be the one most natural to me. I suspect if I had been born a blonde my natural jaguar form coat would be yellow with dark brown spots."

The green eyes were a bit wider now, "Anything else?" Dominique asked her eyes intent on Kendra's blue ones.

"Well…" Kendra hesitated uncertainly, "after the incident in the temple I did a lot of research into jaguars in general and Olmec and Mayan mythology about jaguars and jaguar deities. I did some more research once the dreams began and when I actually transformed. What I keep thinking about are the Olmec statues archeologists found of were-jaguars. They depict shamans in various stages between human and jaguar."

Dominique drew in a sharp breath, her eyes thoughtful, "And now you think the statues depict real shamans, that this is something you can do as well."

Kendra nodded, "I've been thinking of my transformations as either or, either human or jaguar. Perhaps I need to start thinking of the process as a gradient instead, a sliding scale so to speak between human and jaguar."

"Like the mutates," the redhead commented softly more to herself than Kendra.

The black-haired woman frowned, puzzled, "Mutates?"

Dominique sighed and began what was a rather lengthy explanation.

"So David Xantos hired Sevarius to develop these mutates as gargoyle like mercenaries. Sevarius made them by combining their DNA with various large cat species, and they look like were-forms of the species they were combined with." Kendra summarized the redhead's explanation.

Dominique added, "With bat-like wings, the ability to fly and the ability to store and discharge electrical energy in the form of electric bolts."

"Right, electric eel DNA as well," Kendra corrected herself thoughtfully remembering that detail.

"Sevarius worked for me at Nightstone for a period of time. I asked him about it once and he told me he had added the eel DNA so the mutates would have the necessary energy to allow them to glide like gargoyles. His hypothesis was that gargoyles stored the sun's energy during their stone sleep to allow them to glide at night, otherwise he couldn't account for the amount of energy we would require." Dominique commented.

Kendra looked thoughtfully at her, "And yet you don't do that and you manage to glide just fine," she reminded the gargoyle in human form.

Dominique looked surprised; she stared at the black-haired woman bemused for a few moments. Apparently, she hadn't thought about how her own lack of stone sleep might disprove Sevarius's idea. "Perhaps Puck's enchantment compensates for that?" she proposed uncertainly.

Kendra shrugged, "I just brought it up because maybe Sevarius isn't completely right about the energy requirements." She continued, "As for the mutates, it might be nice to see what they looked like, but otherwise I won't be really like them at all. I'm not blending my DNA just blending my two forms." Kendra stopped abruptly and frowned, "Actually I don't really know that, I've never looked into what my DNA is like when I'm in jaguar form. I don't know if it's still human or jaguar or what. Without knowing that I guess I really can't say whether or not my DNA might be a blend if I'm in a form in between the two."

Dominique smiled, "That will be easy enough to determine once we get back to the city. Nightstone has all the necessary equipment."

Kendra nodded thoughtfully, "I'm not sure if the information will be that important to know in regards to my shapeshifting abilities, but I'm curious to know the answer now that I've thought about it."

"Then we will find the answer for you," Dominique promised and Kendra gave her a warm smile in response. The redhead returned her attention to the last of her now cold food. A few minutes later she placed the plate by the fire, she would wash it and the plates in the stream later. Her attention returned to her lover who was now staring into the forest with a thoughtful look on her face. "So how are you going to go about exploring your shapeshifting abilities?" the redhead asked drawing Kendra's attention back to her.

A deep sigh answered her, "I'm not sure, that's what I was just trying to figure out," Kendra admitted. "Maybe I'm over analyzing it, I mean I don't have to think about how my insides change when I become a jaguar I just think about which 'I' is predominant and draw that to the outside."

Dominique spent a moment trying to understand that idea, it was so different from how she viewed her own transformation. Of course, her change wasn't voluntary, it was triggered by the sun and she didn't think much of anything at all during the process except for the pain it caused her. The first few weeks after Puck placed his enchantment on her she had viewed her day form as almost alien, refusing to look at herself during the day. Over time she had come to accept that she was still Demona, still a gargoyle no matter what she looked like on the outside, and she had definitely come to appreciate the advantages her human day form gave her no matter how physically weak she found it. Kendra's explanation though hinted that the black-haired woman saw herself as having a dual personality, the jaguar personality and the human, and at the same time it was clear that she saw both personalities as being her, that they were unified in some manner.

Kendra mused, "Of course the priestess did say the human and jaguar were becoming more integrated. I hadn't really thought about it recently, but she's right the two parts of me have become merged in a way they weren't when I first began my transformations."

Maybe Kendra was thinking too much about it, Dominique thought, after all she had already managed a partial shift once. "What did you do last night?" the redhead asked.

Kendra turned a thoughtful gaze her way, "I just imagined myself with fangs instead of eye teeth and pulled that on top of my human form, but that's not quite the type of form change I'm looking for it didn't really give me any extra physical abilities just the two teeth."

Dominique raised one eyebrow, "So you want to shapeshift just enough to gain all of your jaguar abilities," she asked, "but not actually transform fully into your jaguar form?"

"Something like that," Kendra answered absently. Her gaze focused on the redhead, "I suspect I haven't explored the limits of my abilities in either form, what she taught me about modifying this body," the black-haired woman waved a hand up and down herself, "can also apply to my jaguar form." She added after half a second, "I think."

The red-haired woman's jade green eyes widened at the statement. "Then I guess you do have a few things to figure out don't you," she said after a moment.

Kendra nodded; she came over to the fire and picked up the pot and plate there, adding them to her own. "I'll go wash these since you cooked."

"I'll go with you," Dominique offered, the morning wasn't that cold and the sun was shining brightly through the trees. Underneath the dark green needles of the pines were thick patches of white snow that brilliantly sparkled where the gleaming spears of sunlight shot thru the thick canopy. The redhead glanced at her companion as they strode through the forest, she wasn't certain what was bothering her, just that it had to do with what Kendra had said by the fire. Finally, as they reached the edge of the forest, she understood what was troubling her; Kendra found her strength as a gargoyle attractive, what would happen now that the black-haired woman would be able to be stronger than Demona?

Trying to distract herself, the redhead looked around the open area that bordered the wide stream on both sides as Kendra cleaned the pot and plates. The sun had kept the snow from piling up along its banks, and though the grass was brown right now, Dominique could tell that it would be lush and green during the summer months. The air was crisp and clean, so unlike the air of Manhattan, and everything around her reminded her just a little of Scotland so long ago, pristine and untamed.

"It's beautiful isn't it," Kendra commented softly. "I'd love to come up here in summer and see what it looks like then."

Dominique watched her for a moment, Kendra's eyes were closed her head tilted toward the sun and she had the barest hint of a pleased smile upon her face. She felt and echoing smile upon her own face as she watched the swiftly moving stream. "I don't see why we can't," she offered hesitantly, and a pang of uncertainty caused the smile to slip away as if it had never been.

The sapphire blue eyes opened and focused upon her keenly, "That would be nice," Kendra responded. She turned her head slightly and regarded the redhead with a slight frown, "What's wrong Demona?"

If she had wings, she would be caping them about herself protectively about now Dominique knew. She wasn't particularly happy with the fact that she was having these feelings of insecurity at all. "I guess I can't expect to win anymore of our sparring matches," she blurted then cursed herself for being so obvious.

"I wouldn't do that," Kendra grinned, "I want to beat you on my own." She frowned puzzled when all she got in return for her jest was a weak smile from the redhead. She couldn't fathom why the prospect of her being stronger was upsetting the other woman so; she took in the slump to Dominique's posture the almost defeated way the redhead stood as she stared at the stream. A fleeting remembrance of their lovemaking last night caused her blue eyes to narrow, surely that wasn't it? She glanced at Dominique once again, perhaps it was, and even if it wasn't the redhead deserved to know for how long she had been fascinated with her, "I've waited for an opportunity to meet you ever since you tried that takeover of Murton Electronics over a year ago." The redhead turned surprised green eyes her way, "Learning that Dominique Destine, the woman that had all the old boy CEO's shaking in their shoes after Nightstone's meteoritic rise from obscurity after only a year of existence, was also Demona just gave me the impetus I needed to travel down to Manhattan and actually arrange a meeting."

"I remember that, I didn't know that you had a financial interest in Murton Electronics though," Dominique commented intrigued.

"Old business partner of my father's, I left the investment there when dad died," Kendra explained.

Dominique smirked, "Good work in keeping the share prices stable."

"It wasn't easy, and quite frankly luck was with us. You had it well planned out; you should have been able to force a buyout." The black-haired woman admitted frankly.

The redhead nodded, "I was surprised when the share prices didn't drop," she acknowledged. "So that's when you first became interested in me," Dominique said, she had never suspected that Kendra's interest in her predated the woman finding out her true identity.

Kendra nodded, "That's when I started keeping track of you and your company, both for self-preservation of my own investments and also because I was interested in you. If you hadn't suspected already I have a thing for redheads, and after my first look at a picture of you I was well…" she blushed, "definitely interested."

Dominique raised an eyebrow amused, "So it's just the hair is it?" Her earlier uncertainty, if not gone, was at least being overshadowed by her interest in the current conversation.

The blue eyed woman took a step closer, her gaze filled with warm appreciation, "No it's not just the hair," her voice was husky almost a purr as she spoke. "When I first saw you in your office doorway in your perfect business suit with that white high-collared shirt, your flame red hair tied back and tamed…you looked so regal, so beautiful and elegant, and so very, very sexy."

Dominique was starting to feel slightly hot under the combined effects of Kendra's searing blue gaze and sultry voice. "So it's the tailored suits then," she teased.

Kendra grinned roguishly, "They certainly make me want to muss up them, and the woman wearing them, but no, it's not just the suits."

So that had been what was in those blue eyes when they raked her up and down that day and left her in no doubt that the rumors in the report she had received about Kendra Canmore being interested in women were true, Dominique thought. "So if it's not just the hair or the suits what is it?" she asked flirtatiously.

"Most people react in one way when it's the full moon and I'm feeling very jaguar. Almost everyone is scared, and they react to that fear by either retreating or being aggressive. Very few people don't react that way, and you were one of them." Kendra stated seriously.

The change in tone caught Dominique by surprise, as did the words. "I sensed a subtle threat from you, and it surprised me, but no, I wasn't afraid of you."

"No, you were within your domain, your territory, and in so many ways you let me know that you were the undisputed ruler of it and that I was the interloper and expected to behave unless I wanted to be summarily driven away." Kendra smiled, "Mind you I didn't consciously interpret it that way, it was only later that I had time to analyze your reactions and my responses that I recognized what had been going on."

Respect, Dominique recognized something else unique about how Kendra interacted with her besides the odd bout of shyness; she had never seen the black-haired woman look at anyone with the open respect that Kendra gave her. "Nightstone is my company; I don't let anyone forget that fact," she finally responded.

"I know," Kendra whispered, "I was just letting you know that the strength that I see in you isn't your physical strength. The strength in you that turns me on so much, that makes me want to surrender to you is the strength you have inside you." Her voice turned sultry once again, "Its why even now you could push me to the ground, and claim me for your own."

It took a second for Dominique to process what Kendra had just said, for a few seconds she wondered how the black-haired woman had known what was troubling her, and then she decided that it really didn't matter. She took a step forward, crossing the small distance between them and pulled Kendra's lips down to meet her own.

It was a few minutes before either of them paid attention to the sound of an engine in the distance. Kendra was the first to pull away, staring southward with an intent expression, "I hear an engine," she said, she turned her head toward the sound, "a fairly small one and on the ground not in the sky."

"Let's go back into the trees," Dominique pulled on Kendra's hand to get the woman to follow her, "see who it is before we reveal ourselves just in case it isn't who we are expecting." Kendra stared towards the south for a few seconds before nodding and following the redhead to the tree line.

In a few minutes, a dark green ATV with a small trailer hitched to it approached from the south traveling alongside the stream. Kendra couldn't tell the sex of the rider underneath the thick winter clothes and the full helmet, but there was something familiar about the figure, something that caused her to be certain this was who they were expecting. She rose and stepped out of the wood line.

"What are you doing?" hissed Dominique angrily from behind her.

Kendra paused, "Stay there just in case, but I'm pretty sure this is who we were expecting," she said without looking at the redhead, she didn't want to give away Dominique's location if this wasn't the right person. The ATV slowed as it approached her and Kendra was able to get a better look at the items in the trailer behind it. A tent, three propane tanks and what looked like more camping gear reassured her. The rider of the ATV pulled off their helmet revealing the weathered face of an older woman. Darker skin than her own, braided dark hair, wise dark eyes that studied her keenly, a slightly rounded, square-jawed face, to Kendra's eyes she looked decidedly Native American.

"Kendra Canmore, Jaguar's chosen," the woman greeted her calmly.

Kendra chuckled, "I'm guessing you're the one the Eagle Owl told us to expect then." She heard a rustle behind her and guessed that Dominique was coming forward.

"Demona," the older woman greeted the redhead politely. "I am Rachael Wabagano, senior among the Owl's chosen," she introduced herself.


	12. Chapter 12

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 12**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: Cultural guessing, this chapter introduces a Cree Nation character. I don't' know anything about the Cree except they live in the right part of Canada for the character to be Cree, which is, of course, why the character is Cree. I went with what I could find on the internet so take it all with a big grain of salt.

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/05/08

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"Demona," the older woman greeted the redhead politely. "I am Rachael Wabagano, senior among the Owl's chosen," she introduced herself.

Rachael indicated the supplies in the trailer behind her ATV, "I've brought a few things I thought you might appreciate having for the next few days."

Dominique eyed the older woman uncertainly; she wasn't used to humans knowing her true name. She understood this woman had learned her name from the Eagle Owl spirit, and that this human possessing such knowledge most likely wasn't a threat to her, but still it unsettled her. There was also the fact that she could sense the power the woman possessed now that she was closer. It was not the leashed, primal energy Kendra so effortlessly exuded, it was quieter and calmer, but it was power nonetheless.

"This is for later tonight when hopefully we will have something to celebrate," Rachael pulled out a white, long circular container from a corner of the trailer, it looked vaguely familiar to the redhead, "it will need to settle from the ride, but it will be alright in a few hours." She handed it to Dominique who hesitantly accepted it, the container was labeled, Oban Single Malt Scotch Whisky aged 14 years. No wonder the container seemed familiar; this was one of the whisky distilleries near Wyvern Hill and the one that she liked the best. She had bought a few bottles of Oban scotch over the years, and had some much older than this stored in her cellar. Exactly how much did this Owl's chosen know about her past, the immortal gargoyle wondered with rapidly growing unease as she stared at the scotch container in her hands.

"That is the right area isn't it? When I asked Owl told me you were born on the western coast of the Highlands, in the castle that now sits atop a skyscraper in New York." Rachael inquired of the frowning redhead. Owl had described this one's temper as being as fiery as her hair, and said the gargoyle had about five times as much dislike of humans in general as Rachael had of the white tourists who came to visit the tribe's community and gawk at her people as if they were exhibits on display. After what little Owl had told her of the gargoyle's history, she could understand why, but that didn't mean she wanted to run afoul of either the redhead's temper or whatever mines lay in wait among the remaining fey enchantments.

Dominique incrementally relaxed, "Yes it's the right area," she responded. "I have different vintages of this brand of scotch stored in my cellar aging," she found herself volunteering somewhat to her own surprise.

The older woman smiled, pleased, "Oh good, I wasn't certain that you would even appreciate it, but I decided to take a chance that you might. I have so few people around with whom I can share my appreciation for single malt scotch…" she hesitated for a moment before adding darkly, "at least people that I can share it with safely and without feeling as if I'm doing something morally wrong by drinking at all."

Kendra, who had been poking around in the trailer exploring what items the woman had brought them, looked up at this, "Are you Native American?" she asked, somberly.

"In Canada we refer to ourselves as First Nations people or indigenous people, but yes I am of the Cree Nation," the older woman responded, "My tribe lives at the southern end of Lake Mistassini." She turned toward the trailer, unhooking the bungee cords that held everything down, "We can start moving things to your camp while we talk. I brought everything that I appreciate having along on the hunting trips I arrange for the tribes youth, so we have a few trips to make."

Rachael lifted out a long grey nylon bag and handed it to Dominique, "A tent." She then went around and lifted out a large tan rectangular carrying case with the brand name Coleman on the side, it looked as if it were heavy the way she lifted it. This she handed to Kendra who had a puzzled look on her face as she accepted the item. Rachael said, "There's a portable water heater in it." Blue and green eyes fastened with startling intensity upon the tan container, they barely heard the woman continue, "I've got tarps and a hose with a shower head so we can set up an outdoor shower for you to use. It only does five gallons at a time, but it's better than cold water or heating a pot full of water on the fire."

There was a moment of silence when the Cree woman stopped speaking. Her dark eyes tracked from the blue-eyed jaguar's chosen to the redhead and then to what they were both staring at, she grinned, "We can set up the shower first if you want," she offered.

The two sets of eyes swung up and back to her, Kendra spoke first, "I don't suppose you brought any clothing for us with you?" she asked hopefully.

The slightly almond shaped, dark brown eyes warmed understandingly, "Yes, I was able to figure out your approximate sizes from what Owl showed me. I brought you three changes of underwear, two sets of fleece pullovers and one set of water and wind resistant shells for both of you."

"Thank you," Kendra's appreciation was quick and heartfelt; Dominique's was slower and stiffer, but nonetheless just as truly meant.

An hour later, they had set up the new camp, instead of a rough shelter with pine boughs cutting the wind there was a blue and grey three person, four-season tent with an inflatable mattress and two sleeping bags inside. The hollowed out fire pit with its protective ring of stone was still there, but now beside it was a low plastic table with a propane cook stove. Stacked underneath the table were various canned vegetables and soups. Beside it was a cooler containing milk, eggs, coffee, and a few loafs of bread. Off to the side in the woods there was a rough shower with tarp sides. They had dug a deep trench along the shower's tarp sides to guide the water away from the camp and down the hillside. Rachael was staying this one night with them before starting back and had pitched her bright yellow one-person tent on the other side of the camp from theirs.

While they had set up the camp, Rachael had told them about her past, she had been born in 1761 and had been twenty-three years old when the first smallpox epidemic from the tribes contact with European explorers had spread like wildfire though all the tribes in the area. By the time the last tribe member had been buried over seventy percent of her tribe had died. The remaining tribal members had grieved and carried on as best they could with their lives. They survived by trapping and hunting deer, moose, caribou, beaver, and hare, and gathering wild plants as they had for centuries. They also traded with the other tribes and with European settlers at the Hudson Bay Trading post.

Life continued almost unchanged for Rachael and her tribe until the early 1900's when over trapping by white trappers resulted in population depletion of the game animals the tribe depended upon for both their livelihood and food supplies. Increased contact with the white Europeans also brought a fresh round of diseases the tribe had no natural defenses against. The following twenty years were very difficult for the tribe with both disease and starvation taking their toll of the tribe's members. Finally, in 1948, the Canadian government had limited trapping in the Mistassini's hunting lands; it took another ten years for the tribe and the land to begin to recover. More recently, following the James Bay Agreement in 1975 in which the tribes were compensated for the development of hydroelectric power on their tribal lands, and new government sponsored services such as education and health care were begun, life had once again begun to improve for her people.

"Now I take the youngsters out into our hunting grounds each fall and teach them how to be Cree hunters. I teach them how to know the habits of each animal so that the hunter may find it, how to understand how each animal thinks so the hunt is successful, and how to respect the gift of the animal when they give themselves to the hunter. I teach them of balance, the reciprocal obligation the hunter has with the earth and the animals to provide the conditions for their growth and survival just as they provide for our growth and survival." Rachael concluded as they finished stacking the last of the supplies the woman had brought them.

It had not escaped Kendra's notice that the longer Rachael talked about her past, the more Dominique had relaxed around the Cree woman. Considering how prickly and wound up the immortal gargoyle had been initially around the older woman, this was a definite improvement.

"Interestingly enough I find that most chosen, no matter who their mentoring spirit, instinctively hunt with the same or a very similar philosophy. Kendra, I assume that you hunt?" the older woman's question caught the black-haired woman by surprise as she had been watching Dominique and not paying strict attention to the older woman.

Kendra focused on the Cree woman, "Yes, I hunt once during each full moon," she responded uncertainly.

"I've not had a chance to ask any of the large predator cats chosen these questions; this should be quite interesting to see if the trend I've noticed continues," the older woman said enthusiastically. "How do you find the animals you hunt? Once you find them how do you ensure your hunt is successful? And is there anything you do to make sure your on predation doesn't negatively impact on the population of your chosen prey?" The Cree woman quickly rattled off her questions.

"Umm," Kendra frowned, "well there really isn't much to finding them. I only own three hundred acres and I generally know where my deer herd is bedding down for the night on the nights that I hunt. Prior to the hunt, I select which deer that I'm going to hunt for that month based on my herd management goals. From there it's more of a case of separating out that deer and bringing it down as quickly as possible on the actual night of the hunt."

Rachael stared at the black-haired woman for a moment, she obviously hadn't been expecting this type of answer, "So you have a single prey animal that lives in a well defined area," she frowned thoughtfully, "As you can probably guess that's very different from how we hunt here."

Kendra nodded, "Your last question is much more relevant to my situation, with only three hundred acres my efforts are much more focused on maintaining the herd numbers and health. When I first started I only had two hundred acres, I've added the other hundred over the past seven years to give the herd more room. Their currently at a healthy population for their habitat size at forty-three deer with thirty being does and the remainder bucks. Since I'm currently maintaining that population, I hunt does and bucks fairly evenly during the year."

Dominique found the conversation surprisingly interesting; she hadn't given any thought to the question of whether or not Kendra had hunted prior to their experiences here, though given her lovers skill in bringing down the caribou she perhaps should have guessed. From what Kendra was saying, she had turned into quite the naturalist as a result of her being chosen by the jaguar spirit. "I understand that the chosen are required to live in harmony with the earth and try to protect the environment," she said recalling what Kendra had told her of what the priestess had said, "but exactly how active are the chosen expected to be?" the redhead asked Rachael curiously.

The Cree woman smiled, "A very good question, and one without a clear answer for you unfortunately. It really depends on the animal spirit, some require more active efforts others less." She nodded towards Kendra, "The Jaguar spirit is one of the spirits that does not have specific requirements in regards to the environment. Instead, the Jaguar chosen are expected to be excellent warriors and gifted war leaders. Owl requires us to be rather active in protecting both the environment and the various owl species; we also teach others how to live in harmony with the earth whenever possible. In addition, Owl encourages us to gain new knowledge about the world every day."

Kendra regarded Rachael with a puzzled expression, "Gifted war leader? What does that mean? I don't recall being taught anything about anything like that."

"It does not have to be taught, it is something you already are as one of Jaguar's chosen," explained the Cree woman. "For instance, Lion's chosen are charismatic by nature, they have the gift of persuading large groups of people that they are good all around leaders. Jaguar's chosen are charismatic as well, but their abilities are more specific. They are good at persuading individuals and small groups that they are capable of dealing with challenging situations successfully. And they are as a rule correct, Jaguar's chosen are unusually gifted in instinctually reading such situations and making tactically sound decisions that lead to victories much more often than not, their gift is such that it's rare they come across an unwinnable battle. Outside of such situations though, Jaguar's chosen aren't normally that interested in leading, so they often make only average administrators."

"They are troubleshooters, but not managers," Dominique commented thoughtfully. She could easily see Kendra excelling in that type of position. Then her green eyes narrowed, for a moment she wavered between annoyance and amusement before settling on rueful amusement. She had always wondered exactly how Kendra had managed to get her to agree to spar in the first place, even though she was very thankful that the black-haired woman had; now she suspected she had her answer.

"Demona, what is it?" Kendra asked staring at her puzzled.

"Just thinking about our first meeting, and how you persuaded me to agree to spar with you." The redhead admitted. "Between you being a human and a Canmore, I really should have thanked you for your investment and sent you on your way instead of agreeing to spar with you."

Kendra looked bewildered for a second before her eyes widened and then she looked appalled as she made the same connection.

"Don't apologize," Dominique ordered her sharply, regretting that she had said anything, "don't even feel bad about it because it looks like it's turning out to be one of the more fortunate decisions I've ever made." The redhead paused, surprised for a moment by the astuteness of her own words. "It's lead directly to this," she continued determinedly, indicating the fire and the women around it. "If it hadn't been for me agreeing to spar with you I would have never found out about the enchantments on me, much less had the chance to do anything about them. I would have lived for centuries continuing to sabotage any chance of a relationship with my daughter, with anyone." She stared into Kendra's blue eyes willing the other woman to believe her, to know that she was thankful that Kendra's gift of persuasion had influenced her to agree that day.

"Alright," Kendra was still troubled, but she could see that Dominique was serious about what she said.

"It is your responsibility how you use your gift and your responsibility not to misuse it, but Demona is right, in this case its use has lead only to good. Do not regret that, especially since you were unaware of even having it at the time," Rachael added.

Kendra grinned and held up her hands in a gesture of surrender, "Alright, alright, you two don't have to gang up on me anymore, I get it."

Dominique suppressed a flicker of resentment for the presence of the Cree woman. If it weren't for Rachael's presence, she would have been pleased to use other more persuasive means of showing Kendra exactly how much she didn't mind the current state of events. However, they wouldn't have a nice tent and a hot shower if it weren't for their guest either so… Her gaze went back to the shower, "If no one minds I'd like to try out the shower. I'm really tired of wearing these clothes," she said.

Kendra smiled, "Go ahead, I'll take mine after you're done."

Rachael rose from where she had been sitting by the fire, "I'll show you how to use the shower," she offered. As they were leaning over the water heater the Cree woman said in a low voice, "You two don't have to hide your relationship from me, I don't want to feel as if I'm making either of you uncomfortable with my being here."

Dominique glanced at her startled.

Rachael explained, "Owl told me you two were together, yet I haven't seen either of you act as if you were, so it occurred to me that you were hiding it. It's sad that gays have to do that to protect themselves, but I just wanted you to know that you don't have to do that around me." As if the previous low voiced conversation had never occurred, the Cree woman began to explain the workings of the propane water heater in a normal tone.

As she bathed, the redhead thought about what Rachael had said to her, it was true, Kendra had subtly pulled away from her when she reached out to stroke her hair while giving her a regretful look. Recalling the two women in the forest so many centuries ago, Dominique had instantly understood that Kendra wanted to be cautious around their guest. Things hadn't changed much for lesbians over the years until now. Too many humans still believed such feelings were wrong and evil, being gay wasn't as dangerous as being a gargoyle, but it wasn't that safe either. It had been polite of Rachael to let her know that the Cree at least wasn't one of those humans.

Dominique had to be careful with the water as there was only five gallons for her to use, but it was heavenly to have actual soap and warm water to wash her skin and hair, to feel clean all over once again. Afterward, as she put on clean clothing for the first time in five days, she found another thing for which to be grateful. By the time Dominique stepped out of the shower, her mood was greatly improved.

Kendra grinned as she watched Dominique come out of the shower, her wild red hair hung in damp curls about her face and the woman had a rare smile upon her face. She looked heart achingly beautiful to the black-haired woman. To her surprise, the redhead walked directly over to her, reached up and pulled her head down, and then pressed her lips against Kendra's in a firm possessive kiss. At first, Kendra stood stiffly, her eyes rotated over worriedly toward the third woman by the fire; Rachael though didn't seem to be reacting to the kiss as if anything unusual was going on at all. Finally, she relaxed and wrapped her arms around Dominique returning the redhead's kiss in full measure.

Much better, Dominique thought as she reluctantly pulled away from Kendra, "Let's go get water for your bath." She hadn't liked the distance between them even as she understood and agreed for the reasons behind it. She knew there would be too many times it would be necessary once they returned to New York, but she didn't want to start now especially when Rachael had let her know it wasn't needed.

"Alright," Kendra agreed bemused. Once they were away from the camp, Dominique related what Rachael had told her. "How could I have forgotten that most of the native cultures had no problems with homosexuals," groaned the black-haired woman. "There's even a Two Spirit group in New York City, I've seen their ads in Gay City News."

"Two Spirit Group?" questioned the redhead.

"I'm not certain if all of the different tribes believed this, but from what I understand at least several of them did, they believed gays possessed both male and female spirits and that was what made them homosexual. Gay men could dress as women and were treated as women, women could decide they wanted to dress as a male and were treated as men. I think a lot of tribes tried to channel gays into shamanism because they thought that two spirit people were better at it." Kendra explained. "Some of that tolerance has waned under the influence of Christianity and the mainstream culture disapproval of gays, but I really should have considered that Rachael, given when she was born, would have no problems with our relationship."

While Kendra was bathing, Dominique asked Rachael something she had been wondering about ever since the woman had first introduced herself, "How many chosen does each spirit have?"

"It depends," answered the Cree woman with a grin.

Dominique commented dryly, "Let me guess, it depends on which animal spirit?" That seemed to be the standard answer when it came to the spirit realm.

Rachael chuckled, "Yes, it depends on which animal spirit. Owl currently has eleven chosen, some of which have been given different gifts. Jaguar as far as I know has two chosen, Kendra and one other, a man whose name I do not know, but I know he lives in Belize. There are some animal spirits that do not have any chosen; and there are some that have more than even Owl, like the Eagle spirit."

"What do you mean by Owl gives different gifts?" the redhead asked curiously.

"That not all of the Eagle Owl's chosen have the same gifts." Rachael answered, "I am the only one to have the gift of immortality, and young Robert and I are the only ones who have been given the gift of transformation. The other nine chosen can come into the spirit realm and gain insight and wisdom from the Eagle Owl spirit that they take into the living world with them."

Dominique eyed her shrewdly, she had no doubt that those nine benefited from the association, but it was clear that they didn't benefit nearly as much as Rachael and this Robert. The information also suggested that there was a limit on how much power each spirit had to spread among their chosen. "Is each spirit's power limited then?" she asked curious to know if she were correct.

The Cree woman nodded, "Different spirits are more or less powerful, but they are all limited in how much power they can give to their chosen."

Realizing that she still didn't have the most basic piece of information, Dominique asked, "What exactly are the spirits?"

"Finally," Rachael said, her eyes crinkling with amusement, "a question for which I have a simple answer. They are the life energy of all their kind that ever existed or ever will exist. If you will, they hold the souls of their kind when they are not inhabiting a body in the living world."

"So if I go exploring will I find spirit of Tyrannosaurus Rex in there?" Kendra asked from the shower, making it clear that she was listening in on the conversation.

Rachael began laughing, "Only a cat would go looking!" she exclaimed.

There was matching laughter from the shower enclosure, "What can I say, I am what I am," Kendra acknowledged.

Even Dominique joined in on the laughter that followed that statement. Once the merriment had died down, Rachael answered, "No, you won't. Spirits that have no ties to the living realm go…elsewhere. Not even Owl is certain where they go, only that they go elsewhere after a period of time."

"So why is the Irish Elk still there," Kendra asked as she stepped out of the shower, beating Dominique to the question by the barest margin.

"Because the Fey are still here," Rachael commented solemnly. "The Irish Elk were strong, swift and compared to other deer species, smart. They were challenging prey for the Fey, which is why they preferred to hunt them above all the others they could have chosen. He has never forgiven them for hunting his kind to extinction; it is his interest in them holds him to the living realm and thus to the spirit realm."

There was one thing that troubled Dominique given her experiences with the Fey, "How do the chosen know who will welcome becoming their successors when they are ready to die. Kendra didn't mention ever being offered a chance to either accept or decline being chosen by the Jaguar's priestess as her successor."

"I accepted," Kendra immediately stated, "I definitely accepted, it might not have been a formal process, but I was always aware that it was my choice to accept what was happening to me the year I started having the dreams."

"It is still your choice," Rachael commented, "you could choose today to reject the gift and go back to being a normal human."

Kendra was appalled, "Never," she stated firmly.

The Cree woman smiled. "Does anyone want lunch yet?" she asked sensing Dominique's questions were answered for the moment.

When the three women settled down around the fire once again, it was with bowls of stew filled with hearty chunks of meat, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and green peas along with thick slices of the bread Rachael had brought.

Kendra asked Dominique curiously, "Where in the Highlands were you born?"

"I was hatched in the caves of Wyvern Hill in 938," the gargoyle corrected her. "My clan had lived there for thousands of years, even the oldest of us did not know for how long gargoyles had lived in the caverns beneath the hill. The only humans around at that time were farmers and herders. We lived at peace with them and they with our clan, some of them even became friendly with us and traded cheese and milk for the game we hunted."

The redhead continued, her voice becoming bitter, "At peace until one of the humans whose family we regularly traded with came to us with his lord, Prince Malcolm, and persuaded our clan leader to ally with the Prince and his brother against the human currently upon the throne of Scotland. Culen had killed their father and taken the throne by force of arms while the two brothers were too young to oppose him. In exchange for our clan's aid in their battle, Prince Malcolm promised that his line would protect our clan during the day. With our clan's aid Prince Malcolm and his brother defeated Culen, and Kenneth III became the King of Scotland. The humans built a castle on the lands above the caverns where our clan's rookery was so that they could protect us as they had agreed, our clan even assisted them with the building of it using our strength to move and place the stone blocks and timbers."

Dominique's fists clenched and she glared into the fire, remembering the old pain and anger, "It did not take the humans long to begin calling the castle that we helped them build their castle and the lands surrounding it as their lands." She realized what she was doing when her palms began to hurt; she unclenched them and looked up meeting Kendra's sad, compassionate gaze. It calmed her, reminded her that this was all in the past; she gave the black-haired woman a small smile before continuing.

"It was during this time that I accepted the Archmage's offer to learn human sorcery." A low, angry growl distracted Dominique; Kendra's eyes were narrowed slits of blue at the very mention of the mage's name.

Rachael glanced uncertainly at the Jaguar's chosen; it was unsettling to be so near to the blue-eyed woman while she was seething with anger, however muted. "Owl told me of this one and his role in bringing the attention of the Fey to you for his revenge."

Dominique assessed the Cree woman with a swift glance, then nodded, "As I said he agreed to teach me how to read and then to teach me sorcery." She rubbed her arm remembering, "He was not a kind teacher, but he was the only human to offer to teach a beast."

"He was the beast not you," Kendra growled angrily.

Dominique glanced at her lover, finding her anger on her behalf rather endearing, her lips twitched in amusement, "If you don't quit interrupting with your growls I'll never get through telling this."

Kendra stared at her noting the signs of affection and amusement on the redhead's face. She humphed quietly to herself and settled for scowling at the fire, regally ignoring the snort of amusement from Dominique at this behavior.

"I was barely out of my hatchling years when I began learning how to read under the Archmage's teaching, and I'll admit the way he treated me affected how I viewed all the humans at the castle. I was his servant, cleaning whatever he ordered me to, gathering what plants he wanted from the countryside, and sometimes I was his thief, stealing items he wished to possess."

"The Phoenix Gate," murmured Kendra.

"Yes, the Archmage ordered me to steal it from Prince Malcolms intended bride Princess Elena. I did, but instead of giving it to the Archmage I broke it in half and gave one piece to Goliath as we watched Prince Malcolm's wedding as a token of our love." Dominique shook her head at the memory; neither of them had lived up to the naively optimistic promises they made that night. "Interestingly enough that action lead to the gate being reunited in 1995 at Xanatos' wedding to Fox, I used it and ended up transporting Goliath, Xanatos, Xanatos' father, Fox and myself back to 975. I tried to warn my younger self about the massacre of our clan in 994, but the only thing I managed was to confuse my younger self. Time it seems, is not so easily changed."

"What happened?" Kendra asked softly, staring at the redhead in concern.

Dominique could not meet her gaze, how could she tell Kendra about the role she played in getting her clan killed by the Vikings. That she had been more than willing to trade the lives of the humans in the castle for the safety of her own clan, and how everything had went wrong and both the humans and her clan had ended up destroyed. "I'd rather not talk about it," she whispered harshly.

Kendra's gaze sharpened on the hunched over figure of the redhead, she could see the guilt and anguish betrayed by Dominique's posture as easily as if the woman had admitted it aloud. It was clear to her that whatever had happened in 994, the gargoyle felt that she in some way was to blame for it, and that she expected them to blame her as well if she told them what had happened. Her gaze went to the Cree woman who was also staring at the redhead with knowing eyes. "Who do you think cast the sorcery spell on you," Kendra asked deciding to change the subject, she would bring this up later after Rachael had left when she had a better chance of getting the immortal gargoyle to discuss it.

Dominique looked up, startled by the abrupt change of subject. She was more than willing, though, to have the focus of conversation off the previous topic. "If my memory is correct there was a spell that had that effect in the Grimorum Arcanorum, it was a battle spell designed to be used against a superior opponent to cause them waste their forces in ill considered attacks. It was supposed to influence people to both be easily angered and to act rashly when angered." As she recalled more about the details of the spell her face became grimmer, who had cast such a spell upon her and why?

Rachael asked intrigued, "Who would have had access to this Grimorum before the Weird Sisters enchanted you?"

"The Archmage," answered Kendra quickly.

Dominique scowled, "the Magus as well, he was given it to use to cure Prince Malcolm and he kept it afterwards," she added. She was certain that he had been the instigator of much of the dislike the humans began feeling toward the gargoyles even before Prince Malcolm's death.

Rachael waited a few seconds, "Do we have any other suspects?" she asked.

The phrasing of the question was interesting, Dominique thought, apparently Rachael was treating this like a crime. "I am not aware of anyone that I came into contact with that also had the Grimorum," she answered after considering the question carefully.

"So we have our crime, the spell, and our weapon, this Grimorum which I gather is a spell book?" Rachael inquired. Dominique responded with a short nod. Cree woman continued, "And we have two suspects, the Archmage and the Magus. Now we need to determine who had a motive to commit the crime."

"The Archmage wanted Demona to be angry as a part of his revenge," Kendra offered.

Dominique shook her head thoughtfully, "That's true, but the timing is wrong, that was the cause of the Weird Sisters enchanting me. Both the Eagle Owl and Irish Elk spirits were certain that the sorcery spell predated the Sister's enchantment."

"So what motive would this Magus have to casting such a spell on you?" Rachael asked.

The redhead stared at her bewildered; nothing immediately came to mind beyond the young mage's general dislike of her clan.

Kendra stared into the flames thoughtfully, "Maybe it might be better to ask," she looked up into Dominique's green eyes, "if you noticed any point in time where you abruptly began to lose control over your temper, or began to make rash ill considered decisions. If we know when then maybe we can figure out how such behavior could have benefited him."

Dominique felt ill, yes, there was just such a time, and now they were back on the topic of the Viking's attack and her role in it. She couldn't seem to escape it. "Prince Malcolm's daughter was always afraid of our clan because when she was young her father threatened to give her to us if she misbehaved." The redhead shook her head in remembered disbelief, "As if we would have done anything to harm the child, and yet he made her believe that we would. Our clan leader protested, but Prince Malcolm would not listen and when the Prince died and Princess Katherine became leader of the humans at the castle…things had become strained between my clan and the humans before that, but after they became much worse."

"The Princess made it very clear that she believed us to be monsters and that she did not want to maintain the alliance her father had promised to us in return for our aid to him in restoring his brother, Kenneth II, to the throne of Scotland. It was not long before the humans in the castle forgot why the castle had been built, that it had been built to fulfill Prince Malcolm's vow to protect us in return for our aid in his brother's battles. Instead, they regarded us with fear and hatred; they began whispering among themselves of driving us away. Driving us away from the land we had lived on for thousands of years. They were the ones who came to us, they were the ones who proposed the alliance to gain our aid, and they were the ones who sought us out. We did not need them; we were safe until we were foolish enough to believe the Prince's empty promises of his clan protecting ours." She could clearly remember the sense of betrayal, her anger at Hudson for believing in the human's promises, her feelings of helplessness at what was happening around her.

Then Kendra's hands were upon her shoulders, bringing her back to the present, and her lovers blue eyes were sympathetic and understanding. "I had an egg in the rookery," she said to Kendra, "and the humans were always talking about how much food we ate and how much better off they would be without us, that they no longer needed us to protect them. They whispered, forgetting our hearing, about us being monsters and that we would turn and attack them some night. They whispered about the new eggs in the rookery, how many more of us there would be when they hatched…some of them whispered if they were permitted to hatch. I knew they were thinking about destroying our eggs, but Goliath who was my mate and the new clan leader would not listen to me. He told me that we just needed to be patient that the princess would get over her fears and understand that we protected her and the castle. That it was our duty to protect them. Goliath forgot it was their duty to protect us, our clan had already paid for the human's protection by helping Prince Malcolm's brother become King."

Kendra drew the upset woman into her arms. She could only imagine the fear and anger Demona had felt at the time, believing the clan's unborn children were in danger and she could not get her mate and clan leader to listen or act to protect them. She rubbed her hand in slow soothing circles on the redheads back, waiting for her to calm. "So you chose to act because it seemed as if no one else would and you had to protect your children from the humans. Something went wrong didn't it, and instead of protecting your clan you played a part in their deaths and probably a lot of the castle's human inhabitants as well," she said gently. Dominique's head rose so quickly that Kendra had to jerk back to prevent her jaw from being struck by it.

"How?" the redhead asked, her voice strangled.

"Because she knows that there isn't much that a mother would not do to protect her children," Rachael's troubled voice intruded.

Kendra nodded, "I can't think of a better way to get hurt than to be stupid enough to go after a mother protecting her young. I take a wide birth around the deer with their young in the spring because I know it's the one time of year the does will attack me if I come too close to their young. It doesn't matter how big or frightening I am, a mothers need to protect her young is a strong instinctual drive." She looked into green eyes, "I'm not standing in judgment of your actions because I can tell that you felt desperate and Goliath not acting when you brought your concerns to him probably just added to that desperation. Combine a mother's desperation to protect her young from harm with that spell from the Grimorum and I'm not surprised that something happened that you have obviously regretted for over a thousand years."

Dominique's green eyes filled with tears as she nodded a silent admittance of her guilt. She wanted to claim it was the all the humans fault as she had for so many long years, but the truth was she had always silently known of her own crushing responsibility for what had happened. Her open, lashing anger at the Captain of the Guard for failing to protect them as he had promised and at the Princess for her calling them monsters and for encouraging the other humans in the castle to hate them had always hidden the anger and self-loathing she felt for her own part in killing her clan.

She rested her head against Kendra's shoulder, feeling the flickering of hope that Kendra wouldn't turn away from her in disgust as Goliath and the clan had once the black-haired woman found out the entire tale.

It was quiet in the clearing except for the occasional popping sound of the wood on the fire and the light wind sighing through the pine forest. Eventually Rachael quietly asked, "What about that time makes you think that was when the spell was cast upon you?"

Dominique cleared her throat and turned her head, which was still resting on Kendra's shoulder, so that she could see the Cree woman. "Because I can now tell that was when I first began feeling the level of anger and fear that I grew so used to feeling over the centuries until the owl spirit taught me how to remove the enchantment that amplified my anger last night."

Kendra straightened, "I bet that if we could look at Princess Katherine we would see signs of the same spell," she said, her mind making possible connections between the discrepancies in how Demona described the younger Princess Katherine and how the elderly Princess had acted in the returned memories Kendra had witnessed.

The redhead sat up, her face thoughtful, "I never did understand how the person Angela described as the woman who raised her could even be the same spiteful human that I remembered from the castle. If she were also under its influence that would explain why she was so different on Avalon from the woman I remembered her as."

"So now we have two possible targets of the spell?" inquired Rachael.

"Three," corrected Dominique wearily, "the Captain of the Guard who was the clan's most faithful friend, he also began acting angrier and more reckless than usual around the same time as I."

Kendra met Dominique's green eyes gravely, "Maybe you should tell us what happened so we can figure out why Magus would have orchestrated such a powder keg of a situation as you described."

Resignedly the immortal gargoyle began, telling them about the raids of the Vikings, the refugees the castle had taken in that had strained relations between the gargoyles and humans to the point of open violence between them. She told of how the gargoyles had woken one night with the Vikings within the castle itself and on the verge of victory, until the clan's waking at sunset had turned the tide of the battle and they had routed the Vikings completely.

"The Princess called for a feast to celebrate the victory over the Vikings, but when the Captain of the Guard had Goliath and I accompany him to the feast because it was our clan that saved the castle from being defeated…" Dominique paused, a snarl of rage on her face as she remembered the insult. "The Princess told him to take the beasts away because we had no place at her feast. The castle dogs were in the feast room eating scraps from the tables and she told him to take us away. Without us defending them they would have been dead or the Vikings prisoners by then!"

Kendra shook her head at this; she couldn't fathom what could have possessed the Princess to have acted so stupidly, spell or no.

"As we were leaving, the Princess ordered the Captain to report to the Magus from that moment on, that the Captain was no longer to speak to her. I can still remember the look of triumph on Magus's face at that moment; it made him the Princess's only advisor," Dominique said, her eyes narrowed. "I'm certain he was the source of some of the Princess's maliciousness against us, he was always there whispering to her about how viscous and dangerous we were and about how the Captain couldn't be trusted because he cared more for us than for the humans in the castle." She paused, and then continued grimly, "He was right, that night the Captain came to me with a plan to rid the castle of its human occupants and leave it to us. He would go and meet with the Viking leader, Harkon, and arrange for him to attack the castle again the next night. He would then trick Goliath into leading the clan against a diversionary force so we would be safely away from the castle while the attack occurred, and by the time we returned the Princess and her people would be gone and the castle would be ours."

"The Captain set the plan in motion the next day; however that night Goliath insisted that only he was required to scare away the Vikings. He refused to take anyone but Hudson, the old clan leader with him no matter how much I pleaded with him to take all of us." Dominique's voice trailed off for a moment, "The Captain insisted that the plan would still work, that the Vikings could attack during the day while he kept us safe in our stone sleep. I was uncertain, but I allowed him to persuade me." The immortal gargoyle closed her eyes, tears slipped out from between the closed lids, "I was so angry with the Princess with the humans of the castle that I just wanted them gone and away from the clan, from the rookery and our eggs. By the time that I reconsidered my decision it was too late, dawn was upon us and the Vikings were already moving into position to attack. I left the castle and went into my stone sleep upon the beach at the edge of the cliff, I suspected that something would go wrong, but in my fear of what my rookery brothers and sisters would think of me I did not warn them. When I awoke the castle was deserted and my sisters and brothers were in shards."

Kendra gathered the now sobbing woman into her arms, what a horrible train wreck of a situation and all apparently because a man had wanted more power and influence, and hadn't thought about any of the possible consequences of his setting so many people against one another in his quest to get it.

Rachael waited until the redhead's grief had worn itself down before she spoke. "If we are all correct and the Magus placed the spell on the Captain, the Princess and you then he is more at fault for what happened than any of the three of you, for without the spell and his whispering poison into the Princesses ear none of the events which lead up to the Vikings attack during the day would have ever occurred. I do not know if I could even say how much you are responsible for your own actions in the tragedy because of the nature of the spell placed upon you. Without its influence you would at least have known that the Captain, no matter how good a warrior, could not have protected you from an entire raiding group of Vikings if they decided to destroy you."

"That does not ease my guilt," Dominique responded wearily after a few seconds of silence. She pulled slowly away from Kendra's arms and stood, "I need to be alone for awhile; I'll be down by the stream." Her face wan, she turned away and walked into the forest.

Kendra debated silently on following her anyway to watch out over the redhead, but instinct told her that now was not the time, that the gargoyle needed time alone to think. She was aware of the Cree woman watching her closely, but she ignored her staring instead through the trees where Demona had disappeared.

"Do you think she deserves to be punished for her part in her clan's deaths and the deaths of the humans in the castle?" Rachael asked her.

Kendra shook her head, this she was certain about, "I think she has had too much experience with anger and vengeance, too many centuries of punishment already at the hands of the Archmage and the Fey. I suspect she has punished herself now for a thousand years for what she did and that she has ripped into herself for it for far too long. She needs to learn new skills not more of old ones. She needs to learn how to build and create instead of destroying, how to feel an appreciation for the world and the living things upon it instead of the blackness of anger and revenge at the world. She needs to learn how to cherish something and find it of worth and of value enough to nurture and protect it, and she needs to learn how to protect without leaving only scorched earth behind her."

Silence from the Owl's chosen finally caused Kendra to look at her curiously.

Rachael had and odd expression on her face, "I think I ought to be grateful that Jaguar found you first instead of Owl or I might have had to share him with you."

Kendra shook her head, "I suspect I'd be too active for Owl, I only have these seriously thoughtful moments once every year or so," she commented with a wry smile.


	13. Chapter 13

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 13**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/08/09

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It was close to sunset and Dominique had still not returned. Kendra stared out into the forest indecisively for a few minutes longer before coming to a decision. Even though the redhead had asked them to leave her alone until she was ready to return, Kendra didn't think Dominique wanted to ruin the new clothes Rachael had brought by transforming in them. The Cree woman looked up but didn't say anything as Kendra rose and walked into the forest headed in the direction Dominique had gone in over two hours ago.

She spotted the flaming red hair immediately as she stepped out of the forest; Dominique was sitting by the stream staring at its rapidly flowing waters. She walked across the winter-browned grass and crouched beside the redhead, and stared with her at the flowing water for a few seconds. "You know you never see the same stream from second to second, its constantly changing as the water continues to flow downstream. In a way a stream or river epitomizes the fact that everything changes, even those things we think are static are constantly changing even if only at the atomic or subatomic level." Kendra quietly commented.

Dominique turned her head to stare at her lover, bemused by her words. She hadn't expected a short lesson in philosophy or perhaps it was quantum physics when her lover had knelt beside her.

"The sun will be going down soon; I thought you might want to change out of your new clothes before then," Kendra added glancing at the orange-red color of the setting sun.

The redhead was startled that so much time had passed while chaotic thoughts whirled about in her head. "Thank you, I would have been upset if I had destroyed them," her face wavered briefly at the word destroyed, right now the slightest thing was enough to bring back memories of holding her rookery brother's broken face in her talons.

"Come on," Kendra rose and offered her hand to Dominique, "let's get back so you can change."

Dominique took the proffered hand and allowed the black-haired woman to pull her to her feet.

"I don't recall seeing much of the Magus in the memories you had of Avalon," Kendra commented as they walked through the forest to the camp.

"He died fighting the Weird Sisters." The redhead snarled, "I would have liked to discuss with him exactly why he cast that spell on all of us, but I'm denied that pleasure. At least he died doing something useful," she finished bitterly.

Kendra was fairly certain that discuss was probably another word for pummel or kill, or more likely pummel and then kill in this case. It was a good thing the man was already dead, that meant she wasn't faced with the task of trying to talk the gargoyle out of going to a fey infested island to dismember him. She understood why Dominique felt that way, but somehow she doubted the Magus had ever meant for the situation at the castle to spin as far out of control as it had, no doubt the sacking of the castle had come as a completely unexpected surprise to him. Then there was the fact that killing him would accomplish nothing except adding to the burden of destruction that the gargoyle carried already and end the life of a man who, given that he had died protecting the clan's children, had probably been trying to atone for his deed ever since the sacking of the castle.

"He could have kept the Grimorium, left Princess Katherine and the gargoyle eggs, and found another lord to serve if he wanted to keep seeking power and influence. Given that he didn't, perhaps his protection of the clan's children on Avalon was his way of trying to atone for the destruction his actions lead to," They had stopped walking and Kendra weathered the redhead's angry glare to finish, "even up to giving his own life for them."

"How can you defend him?" Dominique hissed.

"I'm not," Kendra responded calmly, "What happened was a tragedy Demona. He couldn't have meant for what happened to happen, he wanted more influence with the Princess and instead his actions got the castle sacked and its defenders killed. No one involved in any of the events, except for the Vikings, got what they intended to happen. You, the Captain, the Princess and Magus all ended up losing everything, and the Magus got to live with the knowledge that ultimately it was because of his actions, his greed. I can't think of one reason for a power hungry mage to stay on a deserted island and protect a woman, a child and lots of gargoyle eggs, can you?"

Dominique didn't answer she only stared at Kendra angrily.

Kendra continued, "On the other hand I can think of several reasons for a man suffering from a guilty conscience to do so in an effort to atone for his acts."

The redheads face twisted in anger or pain or perhaps a mixture of both, "I'm not ready to forgive him, not now, not so soon. I can't."

"I'm not asking you to, I'm just asking you to not dwell on thoughts of vengeance against him," Kendra assured her soothingly. She glanced around them realizing with alarm how dark it had gotten. "How close are we to sunset?" she asked hurriedly.

Dominique glanced at the slivers of sky she could see through the pine needles, her green eyes widened, "Too close."

"Get out of your clothes," Kendra ordered her, "I'll get your stuff and bring it back here."

Dominique stripped quickly, realizing she had not a moment to spare. She barely had time to shiver in the cold as she handed the last of her clothing to Kendra before the pain of her change overwhelmed all other sensations. She took a deep breath of the clean, slightly pine scented air and caped her wings around herself as soon as the transformation was complete.

"Can I hug you or are you too angry with me," Kendra asked quietly.

Demona uncapped her wings, and held out her arms, "Please." She responded.

Kendra stepped into them and slipped her arms around the gargoyle, she buried her face into the blue neck as Demona's arms and wings wrapped around her. "I care about you, I care so much about you already that it's somewhat frightening to me. I don't want you to lash out in anger and end up hurting yourself as much or more than the target of that anger and I don't want you to do something out of anger that you would regret later," she murmured against the blue skin.

Demona felt a twinge of pain, for some reason Kendra's words caused her to think of the plans that had so recently gone awry with the Assassin. She had lashed out at Goliath and plotted to have him killed so she could take over the clan and protect them, only to have everything go wrong. Instead of saving her daughter, she had caused what might be an insurmountable rift between Angela and her. She tightened her arms around Kendra, "I don't want that either," she admitted, adding silently to herself, _at least not any more_. "And you know I care very much about you too, more than I would have thought possible even three days ago." She added, surprised when she realized it was only too true. So much had changed in just the past few days that it was almost inconceivable to her and she was the one who had lived through it.

Kendra chuckled, "It has been a rollercoaster of a few days hasn't it," she acknowledged lifting her head. She kissed Demona's narrow chin, "I need to go get your halter-top and loincloth."

Reluctantly Demona let her go, watching as the strong, agile figure disappeared through the trees. Kendra was right the last few days had been very chaotic, and there didn't seem to be much of a chance of things calming down very soon for tonight she would find out how the Irish Elk and Owl planned to protect her from the Weird Sisters.

Kendra returned a short time later with Demona's halter-top and loincloth. "Rachael's making food again; she wants us all to eat as much as we can before going into the spirit realm tonight. She says she's expecting it to be a long visit tonight."

Ninety minutes later, all three were ready for the night's journey. They would not be using the sweat lodge this time, as Demona had a fair idea of how to make the transition. With Rachael and Kendra's guidance, only the drumming would be needed for all three of them to travel to the spirit realm.

As soon as they appeared in the shadowy realm, Demona saw the Irish Elk and Eagle Owl spirits already waiting for them.

"Wise One," Rachael greeted the Eagle Owl spirit warmly.

"Rachael," the owl spirit responded, "excellent deductive work earlier," the owl praised. "I have already traveled to Avalon and verified your hypothesis; there are the markings of a similar spell upon the human woman. It will just take me a second now that Demona is here to verify that the spell remains are the same and that they were cast by the same person." The Eagle Owl turned her attention to the gargoyle and examined her in silence for a few seconds before bobbing her head up and down once, "Definitely, the same spell and the same caster," she commented satisfied. "And it has the stench of the Grimorium Arcanorum upon it as well; I didn't think to look for it earlier until Rachael mentioned you believed such a spell was in that book."

Demona was not surprised, "So it was the Magus," she said grimly. Her tail moved restlessly behind her as she received this final verification of the mages responsibility.

"Given the evidence, and the fact that the spell is from the Grimorium Arcanorum, the only other that could have cast it would have been the Archmage," the owl stated, "And you have verified that you did not begin to feel the effects of the spell until after the Grimorium came into the possession of the Magus. Therefore he is almost certainly the one who cast the spells upon you and Princess Katherine."

The immortal gargoyle nodded abruptly and then glared into the spirit realm's misty borders, her tail lashing slowly from side to side.

Kendra waited until it was clear that no one else had anything immediate to say before asking, "What do you mean by the stench of the Grimorium Arcanorum? Do spells have a scent to them?"

"In a manner of speaking," the owl turned her attention to the Jaguar's chosen, "Spell books contain great power, in a way they almost become living entities of their own because of the magical energy contained in their pages. The nature of the spells written on the spell books pages determines the nature of the book, and the Grimorium Arcanorum contained mostly spells to manipulate others such as the spell the Magus used, and spells to destroy things. Therefore, the nature of the Grimorium Arcanorum was both manipulative and destructive. Spell books can tempt those that hold them into using their spells if the person is susceptible to that particular type of temptation and you can guess what the Grimorium Arcanorum tempted its holders to do."

Kendra's blue eyes widened, "Manipulate others and destroy things, was it destroyed when the Archmage was?"

"It was," the Irish Elk answered.

"Good riddance then," Kendra remarked firmly.

"Indeed," agreed the Eagle Owl, "that's why it's much safer to leave spells upon single scrolls, that way you don't run the risk of creating a semi-sentient magical entity."

Demona turned around at this piece of information, her anger briefly eclipsed by her interest in the conversation. She had read speculation that Grimoriums had a magical energy of their own, but no one had been able to verify it. "Sorcerers have speculated that was the case, but I wasn't aware of anyone being able to prove it."

The owl turned toward her, "You now have the ability to see sorcerous energies, if you looked at a Grimorium it would be obvious to you."

The immortal gargoyle nodded, her thoughts went uneasily to the binder of spells she had been collecting over the years. Perhaps it might be a wise idea to separate them into their own scroll cases. "What type of scroll casings would you recommend?" she asked.

"Lead lined, preferably lead lined pine or cedar scroll cases," the owl spirit answered immediately.

Demona nodded, lead lined pine cases at least would not be too difficult to obtain, and while she was going through her spells there were several that she should just destroy.

"Demona," the great stag addressed her, "let us take a walk together you and I, there are things I must ask you before I can determine which of the two possible choices I have decided upon is the best way to proceed."

The flame-haired gargoyle felt a flutter of unease in her stomach at these words. The Eagle Owl's trip to Avalon made it clear that the two spirits were aware of the conversation earlier in the day about what had happened at Wyvern Castle, and Rachael's link with the owl spirit was most likely how the spirits knew. Still the stag had said there were two choices, so learning about her role in the clan's massacre hadn't changed the spirits mind about helping her.

Kendra gave her a warm, encouraging look and Demona felt her spirits rise at seeing it, she smiled in return before following the stag into the forest. Walking beside the giant stag gave Demona more of an appreciation for exactly how huge the spirit animal was, the top of its shoulder was over a foot higher than her head. She felt short next to it. The two of them walked through the forest until they could not see the others.

"You need to know the following information before I ask you my questions." The Irish Elk spirit halted and turned to face the gargoyle. "The members of the young Jaguar's ancestral line that hunted you and that still hunt you have been enchanted by the Weird Sisters. Their hatred is in part their own, but the strength of it and their determination to pursue you is due to the enchantments the Sisters placed upon them."

Demona felt as if someone had kicked her in the stomach, all the years of being hunted, all the years of hatred of the Hunters, all the clans the Hunters had wiped out. She didn't say anything for a minute, and then she said, "You must tell Kendra, it hurts her to hate them."

"The Wise One is telling her now, though she thinks that Kendra suspects already. It is not difficult to see how the Hunters served the Weird Sister's purposes," the giant stag responded. "You care for the Jaguar's chosen."

"I do, very much," she acknowledged, she might have said more, but she was still reeling from the information the stag had just given her.

The giant stag flipped its ears at this, and Demona thought she saw satisfaction in the Elks brown eyes before the stags demeanor turned serious once again. "Now that you know about the Hunters enchantment, do you still hate humanity, are you still their enemy trying to destroy them?"

The gargoyle stared at the stag, "How do you know about that?" she asked with wary concern as she caped her wings around herself.

"I watch the Weird Sisters quite frequently; I followed them to the city where you live. I saw the sorcery you did that night turning its inhabitants into stone and I watched as you destroyed several of them. From the Jaguar spirit, I learned about the illness you planned to use to kill all of the humans." The stag responded calmly.

Demona couldn't respond immediately, the stag had seen what she had done that night and was still willing to help her? "You saw me, you heard me mock them as I smashed them as they have smashed us for centuries…" she stopped unwilling to continue. Most likely, none of the random humans she had killed had ever even tried to harm a gargoyle, and there was only the slightest chance that one of their ancestors had ever killed or tried to kill a gargoyle. She couldn't continue the lie, not after what she had learned yesterday and today. "You know what I did and you are still willing to help me?" she restated staring at the ground. She couldn't meet the stag spirits gaze, not knowing what had happened to his children and what she had attempted to do.

"Yes," answered the Irish Elk spirit, "The Fey have tormented many humans and gargoyles over the course of time, but never has anyone suffered their torment for the length of time that you have. No one has ever been the subject of so much manipulation that not even I can tell which actions are your responsibility and which are not. Everything you have done since the Weird Sisters enchanted you has been tainted by their spells, and today you and we learned that even before the Archmage and Weird Sisters interfered in your life that a sorcery spell had been cast upon you to affect your emotions and judgment." The great stag paused for a moment to let the gargoyle think before continuing, "So I ask you. Now that you are free of two of their manipulation spells, and now that you understand your and other's past actions better, do you still hate humans enough to continue to try and destroy them?"

_Was she still the humans enemy?_ Demona asked herself. As little as a week ago, she would have unhesitatingly answered yes. After becoming involved with Kendra, she probably would have still answered yes, but for Kendra's sake she wouldn't trying to kill them off anymore. Today though…today had shattered all of the reasons, the justifications she had held onto so tightly for ten centuries.

She had hated the humans at Wyvern for the massacre of her clan for almost a millennium. She had blamed the Princess and the Captain for what had happened to her rookery brothers and sisters as much as she silently blamed herself. Only today she had found out that the Magus, seeking more power and influence with the Princess, had played such a central role in all the events, that the Princess, the Captain and she had all been under the effects of a spell he had cast to manipulate their emotions and thoughts to his own ends. The Princess hadn't been as responsible for her hateful words and actions as Demona had always believed her to be. The Captain hadn't betrayed them, but under the influence of the Magus's spell had let his anger goad him into rashly promising something that he could not fulfill. Finally under the spells influence, she had agreed to the Captain's plan to rid the castle of the humans who lived there and had when the Captain had changed the plan at the last minute had failed to realize until too late that the Captain could not possibly protect her clan in their stone sleep during the Vikings attack.

The Hunters had epitomized in her mind the very worst of humanity; they had been in a large part responsible for her hatred of all humans, for her belief that it was impossible for humans not to kill gargoyles. However, they had been pawns of the Weird Sisters, tools for them to bend and use to their own ends just as she had been used by the three fey. There had been so much death and destruction on both sides because of the Sisters enchantments.

"No, I won't try to destroy them anymore," she was finally able to respond.

"Do you still feel that they all deserve your hatred?" the great stag asked.

The gargoyle glanced up at him quickly, her thoughts turning first to Kendra, but she suspected that her relationship with the Jaguar's chosen wasn't what he was after. She sighed, there was always Maza, the clan's human, the human that had always defied her expectation that all humans betrayed given enough time. A memory of a newspaper article niggled at her mind, she remembered sneering at it in disbelief at the time, what had been that groups name? P.I.T? They had become the target of the Quarrymen because they believed humans and gargoyles should live together in peace. The Quarrymen had attacked the groups meeting and put several of them in the hospital from what she remembered of the article, but it hadn't dissuaded the group from their beliefs.

"No," she answered, "Not all of them wish to harm us." Her eyes flashed red briefly, "But that doesn't mean that I will idly stand by and allow those that do to succeed without trying to stop them."

The stag spirit shook his head, "I would not expect you to, I would only ask that you consider all the possible consequences of your actions."

Demona growled in annoyance, this was twice today, did everyone think she was incapable of responding in a rational controlled manner? "I will," she promised grouchily.

The Irish Elk stared at her searchingly for a long enough time for Demona to feel uneasy under the intense regard. "I am satisfied with your responses," he finally said, "I wish to offer you the choice of becoming my first chosen."

"What?" Demona stammered when she recovered her voice, she had expected lessons not this.

"I wish you to become my chosen," the Irish Elk spirit said calmly, "I wish you to be my link to the living world."

Recalling what Rachael had said of the spirits offering and requiring different things from their chosen the gargoyle inquired, "What exactly would that mean? Would you grant me immortality like Kendra and Rachael? What about my transformation to a human during the day and would I have to transform into an Irish Elk each full moon?"

The stag dipped his head and blew gently into her hair, "It is good to ask these things, you have been unpleasantly surprised in the past by such agreements. I will grant you immortality and dispel the enchantment that the sisters have placed upon you. As for the human you are linked to, I will grant him immortality as well, if he should chose it, for it is not right that he should be negatively affected by your choice here. You will no longer be linked to his pain nor will he be linked to yours."

Demona felt ashamed that she had forgotten about Macbeth in all of this. She knew he was currently enjoying being a professor of history and certainly didn't deserve to lose his immortality just because she was getting the enchantment that bound them together removed.

The stag spirit continued, "I will replace the spell the fey Puck placed upon you to transform you into a human with my own gift, you will have the ability to chose which form you wish to be in at any time, gargoyle or human. Know that if you chose to be a gargoyle during the day and you fall asleep you will immediately go in your stone sleep and not waken until sunset like any other gargoyle. Unless there is an extreme situation, such as you confronting a Fey in battle, you will not have the ability to transform into my shape; such a transformation from a being of your size into one of mine would be extremely difficult and painful for you."

The gargoyle breathed out a sigh of relief, she had seen Kendra change and knew it was painful when mass was lost. She couldn't imagine the agony she would suffer going from something as large as the Irish Elk was to her normal size.

"I will also teach you about the life energies in the living world, how to see them to touch them and use them in beneficial ways to heal, and to protect. In return for these gifts I expect certain things from you." The Irish Elk said sternly.

"Never take life to sustain yourself without respecting the life it gave for you to live. Revere Mother Earth for giving and sustaining all life, in all things seek to protect her and live in harmony with her. Know that each life has inherent worth and never harm a life for harm's sake. Avoid practicing magic on another without their full consent and if possible teach them how instead of doing yourself." Demona repeated what she had learned from Kendra feeling uncertain that she could promise the third. She might have given up her war on the human race, and she definitely felt some of them had inherent worth, but all of them?

The stag dipped his head, "Those are expected of all our chosen, I understand the third one will be difficult for you. Other chosen have their personal reasons for that promise being difficult for them to fulfill as well. The Eagle Owl's primary chosen has many reasons to hate those who came to settle in this land after her people. I expect from you what the Wise One expects from her: strive to honor that promise."

Strive; she could do that, Demona decided, especially considering everything she was gaining in return.

"In addition there are two other tasks I wish for you to willingly take upon yourself," the Irish Elk added.

Demona stared at him warily, "What tasks?" she asked her tail beginning to twitch restlessly behind her.

"Your anger and hatred, though amplified by both the Magus and Weird Sisters were and are still your own emotions. They have caused much harm and destruction to both yourself and others over your long lifetime. I know that your part in the destruction of your clan still weights heavily upon you, and that you bear a burden of hatred toward yourself for your actions and failure to warn your clan." The stags tone was gentle even if his words were not.

The flame-haired gargoyle flinched, coming so soon after this afternoon the stags words were especially painful. "I do," she acknowledged harshly.

"Would you accept a task from me to atone for your actions?" he asked.

Demona stared at him, what could he require that would make up for what she had done? "What task would be enough to make up for the destruction of my clan?"

"Become a true protector to the worlds remaining gargoyles," the great stag responded.

The immortal gargoyle's green eyes widened as the scope of the task the spirit was asking of her sunk in. Still she had wondered what task would be difficult enough to atone for what she had done, and if she could save even a few, it would in some way make up for what she had done so long ago. "Where would I start? I know of a few surviving clans, but am not certain that I know of them all, and how will I know which ones need my help?"

"You will not be left without guidance in this task, I and the Eagle Owl will help you determine where the most immediate need is and our thoughts on what the most beneficial course of action might be," the Irish Elk assured her.

Hearing these words, Demona felt more optimistic about the task. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she began to feel a certain anticipation to begin, "I accept, and the second task?"

The Irish Elk spirit said, "You become a wise steward and guardian of your domain."

Demona frowned, "I don't understand, what domain?"

"Your domain is Nightstone, you are responsible for land and for the people who work for you are you not?" the stag inquired.

The flame haired gargoyle eyed the spirit uncertainly, "I'm responsible for maintaining the building, but I'm not responsible for my employees. I pay them and offer them competitive benefits, but that's all," she finished warily.

"It is my understanding you provide for their medical care, is it sufficient? Are they healthy? Are they cared for properly when they are wounded or taken ill? Do you treat them fairly and justly as their leader? Do you treat them in such a way that you acknowledge they have inherent worth and not harm them for harm's sake? Does the way you manage your domain show your respect for Mother Earth and your attempt to live in harmony with her? Do you protect the environment?" The stag reeled off the long string of questions while Demona stared. "The Wise One assured me this would be a challenging task for you while remaining competitive and growing your business," the gargoyle swore the spirit actually sounded slyly amused as he added the last sentence.

Demona grimaced at the list; at least some of the requirements were ones she would have had to fulfill anyway. The owl spirit was right it would be difficult to do all those things and remain competitive. "The Wise One is correct it will be very difficult because those will require me to assume expenses that other companies do not have, I'm not certain that it's possible to do all those things and remain competitive." She had to admit.

"You are not required to meet all of the requirements immediately, remember the tasks are ongoing challenges, you will never fully complete them. You are only required to strive toward accomplishing them, to become a wise steward and guardian of your domain." The Irish Elk reassured her. "Also I believe you will find the Jaguar's chosen and several of the Wise One's chosen will be eager to assist you with this task."

Demona stared at great stag, all she had to do was agree to the last task and the spirit would free her from the Weird Sisters and Puck's enchantments, replacing them with his own. Did she want to trade their control over her life for his? "What would happen if I did not want to become your chosen?" she asked hesitantly.

The great stag's ears flickered briefly, "Then I would give you two choices. I could leave the transformation and immortality enchantments and remove the remaining manipulation enchantments and teach you some basic methods of protecting yourself. However, your chances of preventing the Weird Sisters from enthralling you once again would be low given the hold they have on you with the immortality spell. The other choice would be for me to remove all the fey spells upon you, leaving you mortal, and as any other gargoyle you would stone sleep during the day. Your chances of protecting yourself from the Fey re-enchanting would be better if you took that option for they would have to trick you anew into accepting their aid."

The flame-haired gargoyle let out the breath she had been holding, now she knew all of her options the question was which one did she want to take? She stared searchingly into the great stag's eyes. Could she trust him or as with the three fey would there be hidden requirements revealed later once she had accepted his aid?

"As with all chosen," the great stag interrupted her thoughts, "You will have the choice of ending your role as my chosen at any time. We do not force any to remain bound to us if they no longer desire it. If you ever wish to be released from your role as my chosen I will withdraw my gifts and you will be mortal and you will be as any other gargoyle."

She now remembered Rachael saying something about that to Kendra and the black-haired woman vehemently denying that she would ever give up the Jaguar's gifts. Her stomach full of nervous fluttering, Demona made her decision. "I accept your tasks; I will become your chosen Ancient One."


	14. Chapter 14

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 14**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/14/08

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Her stomach full of nervous fluttering, Demona made her decision. "I accept your tasks; I will become your chosen Ancient One."

"I will not betray your trust in me," the great stag assured her gently.

The stag's intuition dumfounded Demona before she remembered an essential characteristic of the spirit realm, the object of one's emotions felt them. The Irish Elk spirit had known of her fear all along and had done what he could to allay it.

"There are certain preparations I need to make and I need to visit the human bound to you. Return to the others and I will join you when I am ready," the stag said before turning and walking into the forest where he disappeared into the mists that swirled everywhere beyond fifty or so feet.

The gargoyle retraced her steps through the shadowy forest staring musingly into the fog like mist that coalesced into the shadowy reflection of the living world as she walked along. Kendra's words by the stream earlier in the day came back to her and she paused to reflect upon them. Change, everything was in a constant state of change, and right now her life was certainly an example of that. It was unfortunate that she had not met Kendra and gotten kidnapped and dumped in the wilds of Canada weeks ago before her plans with the Assassin had ever been conceived, Demona thought with a sad smile. Given her daughter's last angry words, Angela would see anything Demona told her now as another performance, a lie designed to manipulate her into forgiving her mother. She could only hope that with time Angela would see that she had changed, that her daughter would come to her and ask why and give her a chance to explain about the Archmage and the Weird Sisters and what they had done to her. Demona gave a resigned sigh and started walking towards where she had left the others once again.

"Make the fingers thicker?" Demona heard Rachael say though she could not yet see the camp.

"I'll have to, otherwise there's not room for the claws to sheath like their supposed to," the gargoyle heard her lover say.

Curious as to what they were discussing Demona picked up her pace, only to halt in surprise as soon as she entered the clearing. The Eagle Owl spirit, Rachael and Kendra were all clustered around the shadowy outline of a humanoid figure. Stepping closer she realized what was happening; Kendra was creating a new shapeshifting form.

"Ugg," Kendra complained, "Now the claws work right, but the hands look deformed."

Demona walked up to the group examining the ghostly figure floating in the middle, in many ways it looked like a mutate, but without wings. She could see the figure was based on Kendra's human form, having the same size, shape and musculature, but the skin was black and covered with a fine coat of black fur. The face was a mutate-like cross between a jaguar and Kendra's features, but closer to human than jaguar and reminding her somewhat of the mutate named Maggie. Jaguar ears pricked out through a thick mane of black hair that matched Kendra's hair.

"Demona?" Kendra regarded the blue-skinned gargoyle inquisitively as soon as she saw her.

The flame-haired gargoyle examined the offending hands of the ghostly figure; the fingers definitely looked out of proportion. "Maybe if you increased the body size until the proportions were right?" she suggested.

Kendra turned back to the figure, "that might work," she agreed after considering it for a moment. She looked back at the gargoyle in concern, "you ok?" she asked quietly.

"He offered me the choice of becoming his chosen," Demona responded just as quietly.

Kendra's blue eyes opened wide, her mouth opened and then closed without a sound; it was obvious that she had no idea of the Irish Elk's plans.

Demona began to chuckle, Kendra's reaction was priceless.

Kendra stared for a moment at the laughing flame-haired gargoyle, and then she smiled. "You can stop laughing now," she mock groused, "and tell me whether or not you accepted!"

The gargoyle glanced at the other's present, the Eagle Owl spirit looked…smug she decided. Rachael on the other hand looked as interested in her answer as Kendra did. "I accepted," was as far as she got before Kendra grabbed her about the waist with a loud whoop and swung her around in a wild circle. Demona clutched wildly at Kendra's shoulders, her wings flaring instinctively at the unexpected movement. When Kendra lowered her to the ground, she stared in astonishment at her lover before a smile spread across her face.

"Congratulations and welcome," Rachael wished her with a warm smile.

Welcome, the word stuck in Demona's head, she was becoming one of them, a shaman. The reality of her acceptance hadn't sunk in; at least it hadn't in this way. What were the shamans to each other? Did they know each other? Did they work together?

"Indeed let me add my welcome to my chosen's, and my promise that I will assist you in whatever way I can with the tasks the Ancient One has given you." The Eagle Owl spirit promised. "I strongly suspect that my several of my chosen will also be interested in assisting as well," she added swiveling her head to look at Rachael who was standing beside her.

"Tasks?" Kendra inquired, looking at Demona curiously.

Demona's first reaction was to feel uncomfortable that they had even been mentioned, the tasks after all were her atonement for her past actions. Then she remembered the great stags words, Kendra and Rachael would be eager to help, he had essentially instructed her to seek their assistance. Mastering her reluctance, she shared the two tasks she had agreed to undertake.

"Challenging and interesting," Kendra commented her eyes bright with her enthusiasm, "I'd love to help if you want some. I've been following some technologies that have just come into commercial production the past two years that might be of interest to you when you start converting Nightstone into a more environmentally friendly company."

"I too would be like to be involved if you wouldn't mind Demona," Rachael offered, "I'd have to do it long distance, but I'd be happy to help especially with any researching. I also know of a Work Life Effectiveness consultant that could help you with your second task, her name is Margaret Jackson and she's one of Bison's chosen. We email each other quite regularly as she is a member of the Comanche Nation, and I happen to know she's wanted to visit New York and go to some of the shows on Broadway."

"Work life effectiveness?" asked Demona blankly, she had never even heard of such a field.

"She helps employers develop job benefits that help their employees balance the demands of their personal lives," Rachael paused to frown reprovingly at the gargoyle.

Demona grimaced, she knew she had been scowling at the idea, she preferred her employees to leave their personal lives at home. That, however, obviously wouldn't work anymore, not if she wanted to fulfill her obligations to the Irish Elk spirit. "Such as," she forced herself to ask without growling the words resentfully.

"As I was saying," Rachael continued, "To balance the demands of their personal and work lives while increasing their work efficiency."

That caught Demona's attention, "What types of benefits?" she asked.

"I don't know all of them, it's not my area but I remember her talking about pre-tax child and elder care accounts?" Rachael frowned as she tried to remember the specifics.

Demona nodded to indicate that she understood, she didn't exactly, but pre-tax anything was definitely a benefit.

"Employee discounts at accredited child and elder care providers, programs to encourage telecommuting, and flexible work hours and schedules. Those are just the ones I remember right now from our emails. I know she works with the companies to determine which benefits will increase employee efficiency the most while working within the company's budget." Rachael finished.

The gargoyle frowned; she couldn't immediately see how such benefits would increase employee efficiency.

"I know that flexible work schedules do increase employee efficiency," Kendra commented, "I was in on the discussion at Murton Electronics when they implemented it." Demona, Rachael and the Owl spirit all focused their attention upon the Jaguar's chosen inquiringly.

"Well," Kendra said, "It does take some more overhead by management, but take for example a family with school age children. The children are in school by 8:00 and then get out at 2:30. If both parents work the standard 9 to 5 then they have to either pay for child care or worry about what their kids are up to for the three hours they aren't home to supervise them. With flexible work scheduling, one parent can go to work early and get off early enough to be home in the afternoon when their children are at home. This benefits the company because the employee is no longer at work worrying about their children and calling to check up on them etcetera because they've already worked their eight hours and have headed home to meet the kids at the door. Consequently you have better employee work efficiency when they are at work because work and their duties as a parent are no longer trying to compete for the same slot of time."

That made sense to Demona she had certainly scowled at enough people in the afternoons for being on the phone trying to control their offspring. Before she had felt that those employees only proved her point about humans breeding like vermin when they were not able to care adequately for their children, but right now she felt she was hardly in a position to judge them. After all, unlike her, at least they were trying to keep their children safe and secure. These self-accusatory thoughts came to an abrupt halt as the Irish Elk spirit appeared out of the mists with the shadowy figure of Macbeth following behind him.

Demona wasn't certain what to think, it was obvious Macbeth wasn't really in the spirit realm, at least not in the same way Rachael, Kendra and she were, they were solid here like the spirits. Macbeth was here as the land and forest were here, an image of the living realm, but not actually present.

She could see the scowl on his face grow as soon as he saw her, "Demona," he growled, "Why are you in my dream and what is this about breaking our bond?"

So that was why he appeared to be a shadow image, Demona realized, he was dreaming. "I can only guess that breaking the bond between us requires both of us to be here," she replied coolly as she caped her wings protectively about herself. Macbeth's angry, hateful look was unsettling enough, but the anger, hatred and unexpectedly the hurt she was feeling from him were much more disturbing.

Demona wasn't certain anymore that he had intended to betray her clan. Knowing what she did now, she was willing to consider that perhaps it had been she who reacted too angrily and hastily. Macbeth after all hadn't said he was going to betray them to the English, only that a good king considered every option. Of course, she wasn't as certain anymore about the true causes of anything over the past thousand years, not after learning that the Weird Sisters controlled not only her but also the Canmores. It left her wondering what else over the centuries they had orchestrated to serve their own ends.

The warmth of Kendra's arm around her shoulders was unexpected, but very welcome. She looked over at her lover, expecting to see a reassuring smile only to realize that Kendra was giving Macbeth a narrow-eyed and rather unfriendly stare. "Kendra," she said sadly, "he has reason to hate me, I treated him very badly not that long ago." Sapphire blue eyes turned her way in surprise, "It was after the events on Avalon when our memories were blocked by the weird sisters. It's a long story for another time, but suffice to say he didn't know I turned into a human during the day, and I used that to pretend to be someone I wasn't." Demona's gaze turned back to Macbeth, "And worse I pretended to love him when I did not. It's something I regret doing now, especially since I'm no longer as certain as I was then that you betrayed me." Demona finished, now speaking directly to Macbeth. "I know you may never forgive me, but I am sorry for what happened in Paris."

Macbeth stared at her, an angry and bewildered expression upon his face, "What trickery is this?" he asked.

Demona stared at him for a second in confusion before she realized what must have happened, "No trickery Macbeth, in this place if you feel something about someone they are able feel it as well."

The great stag spirit interrupted before either Macbeth or Demona could say anything else, "Macbeth was not planning on betraying your clan to the English, but neither would you have betrayed him to Canmore if it were not for the interference of the Weird Sisters to ensure that their version of the future came to pass. However, this is not the night to search for the truth of those events; it is time to break the bond that binds you to one another."

"Yes Ancient One," Demona readily agreed, she had heard the promise in the spirit's words, not tonight, but another. Kendra's arm tightened for a moment around her shoulders and then released her, but Demona still felt the warmth of her nearby, she didn't have to turn to know that her lover was standing protectively behind her.

"Wait!" protested Macbeth, "What do you mean those three old witches ensured their version of the future came to pass?"

Demona glanced over at Macbeth, saw the shock and disbelief on his face. Emotions she was certainly familiar with lately, but unlike Macbeth, she had at least had a day or two to get used to the idea that the Weird Sisters had been more active in her past than she had ever imagined. This was the first time he had heard of this, and she remembered how much it had felt like a hard punch to the stomach. "Ancient One," she requested, "when we explore those events may Macbeth come here again as well? He was affected by the Weird Sisters no less than I was, he should know the truth of their actions as well."

The great stag looked from her to Macbeth, "That is so; however, without a connection between you, such as the fey enchantments that bind you to one another, I cannot bring him here."

"Leave enough between us tonight for him to return and then after we are done remove the remaining enchantments?" offered Demona.

The Irish Elk spirit swung his massive head and regarded Macbeth inquiringly, "Is this acceptable to you?"

Macbeth stared at him suspiciously for a few seconds, then his face become indifferent and he shrugged saying, "Very well, it's not like it matters this is just a dream."

The great stag's ears flipped a few times at this statement, but the spirit didn't say anything so Demona stayed silent as well. Macbeth could think whatever he needed to think to rationalize what was happening she reasoned.

"I will leave the bond that allows both of you to feel the other's pain, that will be sufficient to allow me to bring you here tomorrow night, and tonight I will replace the Weird Sisters enchantment that grants you immortality," decided the giant stag.

Remembering how quickly the spirits could deal with fey enchantments Demona concentrated as she had been taught the previous night. Green strands of energy appeared inside Macbeth and the gargoyle watched as an entwined mass of them, much larger than either of the one she had removed last night from herself, separated out from the remainder of the fey enchantments surrounding them. The single lines that bound the mass to Macbeth began to disappear as the stag spirit dissolved them and within a very short time, the entire mass disappeared. Demona glanced quizzically at the remainder of the enchantments within Macbeth's shadowy figure; all of these were required for them to feel each other's pain?

"More enchantments are there than just the ones that transfer their pain between them," Rachael commented knowledgably.

The Eagle Owl spirit bobbed her head in agreement, "Indeed there are," she commented staring intently at Macbeth.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Macbeth irritably, "and what are you looking at?"

Demona felt a grin tug on her lips, at least someone else was the center of attention this time.

"And what are you smiling about," he growled.

"At least no one's commenting about what a smorgasbord of enchantments you have on you and look there's even some they don't recognize," Demona protested.

Rachael looked down at the Eagle Owl spirit standing beside her, "Wise One you didn't," she half protested, half laughed.

"I did apologize," the owl complained ruffling her feathers.

"You did Wise One, I'm just pointing out to Macbeth that it could be much worse," the flame-haired gargoyle explained glibly.

"Enchantments? What enchantments?" Macbeth demanded, scowling.

Seeing and feeling her old allies annoyance, Demona's brief moment of levity fled, "their talking about the fey enchantments still upon you, hopefully tomorrow will help identify exactly when they were placed and what they do. And even if it doesn't you will still be rid of all of them tomorrow night," she reassured him.

He regarded her suspiciously for few seconds, and then abruptly nodded, "Very well then, if that is all…" he hesitated for a second staring up at the giant stag, "Ancient One."

Demona had the feeling he just wanted to escape this increasingly confusing situation, and she couldn't really blame him. She wondered idly for a moment how he would interpret all this in the morning when he woke. The Irish Elk dipped his head and the figure of Macbeth dissipated and drifted away like smoke upon the wind. Demona stared surprised at where he had stood for a moment longer before returning her attention to the great stag.

"Demona," it was a summons and she stepped forward to stand in front of the Irish Elk spirit. The majestic antlered head rose, and the great stag's gaze shifted from her to behind her, and she got the impression the spirit was surprised. Demona turned around and looked, wondering what was happening that would surprise the spirit.

Kendra was there, her blue eyes warm and proud, and Rachael and the Eagle Owl, but beyond them out of the mists, others were appearing. A great lean bodied wolf, the solidly huge form of a bison, landing among the branches of one of the pines was a keen-eyed eagle; the more she looked the more animals she saw, a fox, a crow, the slender form of a deer. Her gaze was drawn the large black jaguar that padded up beside her lover and sat down regally. The Jaguar spirit's green-eyed gaze examined her and she felt an odd tug of affection for the magnificent cat, it reminded her of Kendra. Her gaze went from the seated cat to the woman standing beside it and met the sapphire gaze, no, as much as she liked the jaguar inside of Kendra, it was definitely the whole woman that was her lover.

A gusty breath through her hair had Demona quickly turning back around to face the Irish Elk spirit. She wasn't quite certain what to think of the audience that was forming, Kendra had never mentioned anything like this happening to her.

"You are the first chosen I have taken, and the first of your race to be chosen," the great stag commented.

Demona stared into the spirits brown eyes; somehow, she hadn't considered that she might be the first gargoyle to be chosen.

"Let us begin," the Irish Elk spirit spoke pulling Demona out of her thoughts. She had a moment to realize that the spirits gaze was focused upon her and then…she was broken into an infinity of pieces and reformed and made whole at the same time…she was a tree and a bird and the land and grass and a deer feeding and an ant following a scent trail home and the swift flow of a stream and the great depths of ocean and the sleek torpedo shape of a shark and she was a gargoyle leaning against the great antlered head of the spirit…she was herself, and yet she was more than she had been only an instant ago.

The only thing preventing her from falling to her knees was the fact that she was leaning so heavily against the stag's head. She stayed there for a few seconds longer reorienting herself after the…Demona was at a loss she had no idea how to even define the experience she had just had, if she didn't know better she would have thought she had a drug-induced hallucination, a very intense one. Finally, she was able to steady herself and pull away from the spirit's support.

"It is done," the great stag sounded rather pleased with himself.

"Demona," Kendra's concerned voice came from immediately behind her, and then a warm body pressed against her back and arms wrapped supportively around her waist. "Are you alright?" she sounded puzzled.

"Yes, I'm fine," Demona assured her, placing her hand on the arms wrapped around her midsection and squeezing them reassuringly, "only not entirely certain what just happened."

"I dissolved all the remaining fey enchantments upon you, linked your life energy to mine to grant you immortality and the power of transformation between a human appearing form and your natural gargoyle form, and attuned you to the energies of nature and life. It was most likely the last that was disorienting to you," the Ancient spirit explained.

Attuned to the energies of life and nature, Demona remembered the strange confusing sensations of being other life forms and even more bewilderingly of being water and land. She remembered the moment when she knew she had been broken and remade as more, now she knew what the more was or at least she thought she did. For a brief moment she felt a bit outraged that the spirit had done this to her without explaining beforehand exactly what the brief comment about giving her the ability to do nature magic meant, then she remembered that whenever she chose she could back out of this agreement and be returned to normal. Something inside her rebelled at the thought, she didn't know exactly what being attuned to nature and life energies meant, but she already knew didn't want to give up whatever it was she had gained.

"Jaguar's chosen," the Irish Elk requested, "Would demonstrate transforming to my chosen?"

"Certainly," Kendra agreed, she briefly squeezed the trim muscular waist her arms were wrapped around before releasing the flame-haired gargoyle. Glancing around she noticed that the assembly of spirits had departed as quickly as they had arrived except for the Jaguar spirit who was sauntering over to look at the half-completed form she had been working on when Demona had returned. "Alright," Kendra paused to order her thoughts and decide exactly how to proceed. "Examine the human and jaguar spirits inside of me; see how the jaguar form is enclosed within the human form right now." Kendra waited as the gargoyle studied her intently for a full minute before Demona nodded her head. "Now watch as I transform," Kendra instructed.

Demona concentrated on watching how Kendra managed the transformation, her lover had told her about this, but watching was much more instructive than any verbal description could be. Kendra pushed the Jaguar form out over her human form and then matched herself to the image. No wonder she always looked over herself to make sure she had made no mistakes, Demona thought as she examined Kendra's jaguar form and saw how now the human form now rested inside of the jaguar. "I believe I understand how you are transforming, it doesn't appear to be that difficult." At least Demona hoped it was as easy as it seemed to be.

Kendra insisted on transforming back and forth a few more times to make sure Demona understood completely before she decided it was finally the gargoyle's turn.

Demona could see within herself the form of her human persona Dominique Destine currently enclosed inside her true gargoyle form. She struggled with the two forms using what Kendra had done for a reference and finally managed to pull her human form out and over her gargoyle form. Once she did so she realized that she had done it, there was no need to hold onto the mental image she had successfully managed the transformation she now appeared human.

Kendra smiled, "You did it, congratulations, now to just master the process."

"Very nicely done, you learned how quicker than I did," Rachael added her complements.

Demona nodded, a smile of pleasure at her accomplishment and praise on her lips, and concentrated on moving back and forth from human to gargoyle, verifying that she had everything correct after each change. She transformed one last time from human to gargoyle and looked inquiringly at the black-haired woman.

Kendra nodded, "You have it. When we get back to the living world you should transform back and forth at least once to make sure there you don't have any problems with the actual process."

"Alright," Demona agreed, wondering how painful the process was going to be. Recalling Kendra's transformations she guessed that there would be little to none going from human to gargoyle and then some pain going from gargoyle to human.

"Chosen," the great stag spoke.

"Ancient One," the gargoyle turned around and looked at the spirit inquiringly.

"There is still time tonight for you to have your first lesson in nature magic. Let us move away from the others so that they may concentrate on the form the young jaguar is building," the Irish Elk suggested. He strode away from the others and Demona followed, they did not go far just far enough for Kendra and the others to disappear in the mists.

The stag stopped and turned to face the gargoyle with surprising grace for his size, "Everything upon this planet possesses nature energy, even those made by man because they too are made from natural materials. The energy that grants you, the young Jaguar and Owl's chosen immortality and the ability to change forms is nature magic. Your first lesson tonight will be in how to see this type of magic."

A short time later, Demona was examining what had replaced the Weird Sister's enchantments. The first thing she noticed was that nature magic was colored differently, fey magic was almost florescent green in color. Nature magic was golden with motes of forest green, brown and stone grey dancing through it. The next thing she noticed was how different the spirit's enchantments looked from the previous ones. The Weird Sisters enchantments had looked just as they were -constricting, immobilizing, almost like parasitic vines wrapped around her. The stag's enchantments looked completely different; the lines of the magic were open, branching reaching outward and upward.

"Life magic flows through every living thing, from the simplest to the largest and is a closely related to nature magic," the Irish Elk continued, "To see life magic specifically you must shift your focus so…"

In a moment Demona was staring at herself in wonder, she had noticed almost a haze of energy around herself when she had been looking at nature energies, now it was as if that haze had been cleared away. Life magic was brilliantly golden, like a beam of sunlight, with motes of a deeper gold color and the same forest green motes she had noticed in nature magic dancing and swirling through it. There was so much of it, lines and lines of it, all interconnected and branching. The only thing remotely like what she was currently seeing was a picture in an anatomy book showing the blood vessels and veins in the human body.

"You can study life and nature magic for a thousand years and still not know but a fraction of all there is to know about it. I have studied both for over a hundred thousand years and I still have much to learn," the stag spirit commented to her. "Now for the last lesson, examine one of the trees around us, these are but shadows of the living realm, however, if you concentrate upon one of them you will be able to see its life energy."

Demona turned to the nearest pine tree, focusing on the shadowy outline of it, concentrating on seeing the life energy within. She started back for a moment when it the trunk in front of her seemingly burst into brilliant lines of energy. Her eyes followed the thick bands of energy upward, looked in awe as they branched out along every branch, every twig, every needle. She stared for a moment at the tree's crown lit in fine lines of brilliant gold, then looked down at the ground. She could see the trees root structure outlined by the life energy in each root, from the thick roots that anchored the tree to the earth to the finest feeder roots.

"Demona," the stag's voice cut through her fascination with what she was seeing, and she had the impression that perhaps the spirit had tried to get her attention more than once. "It is time for you to leave this realm."

She did feel tired and hungry, Demona realized with surprise, she had been so interested in what she was seeing that she hadn't realized. They returned to the clearing, the Owl and Jaguar spirits along with Kendra and Rachael were still clustered around the were-jaguar form Kendra was making. Demona noticed that the figure was now taller and bulkier than Kendra's human form, and that the fingers and hands were now properly proportioned in relation to the rest of the body. Everyone turned at their entrance and Demona got the distinct impression that they had been waiting for them to return.

Kendra and the Jaguar spirit exchanged a long silent glance before the black-haired woman nodded and reached out and touched the were-jaguar form. The form wavered and flowed into Kendra, "Thank you," she said to the Jaguar spirit.

"You are welcome my chosen," the Jaguar spirit replied.

The three women glanced at each other, it wasn't necessary to say anything they were all feeling the strain of too much time spent out of their bodies. In the next instant Demona was back in her body sitting next to Kendra with a sleeping bag wrapped around them both. Rachael was across the fire from then, wrapped within her own sleeping bag, the older Cree woman rose and checked the cooking pot resting by the fire, which had the leftover stew in it, that they had left warming for now. Demona forced herself out of the warm cocoon, rising and going to assist Rachael in putting together a simple meal for them.

A warm bowl of stew and a thick slice of bread improved the three women's energy levels and mood immensely.

"Are you feeling up to changing?" Kendra asked.

"Now I am," Demona commented, she was glad Rachael had thought of making enough stew for two full meals tonight. The gargoyle made a mental note to remember how draining it was to go into the spirit realm for any length of time; once Rachael left, she would need to make sure they had a meal ready for afterward. The gargoyle closed her eyes and relaxed into the trance like state that Kendra had taught her and imagined her gargoyle form shrinking until her human form covered it then willed herself to match the image of her human form. The pain of the transformation was far less than what she was used to from Puck's spell and when Demona opened her eyes she glanced at herself. She had succeeded she was in her human form. She immediately began shivering as the night was very cold and she was wearing her gargoyle clothing.

"Very good, and very quick too," Kendra noted approvingly.

"Very cold," Demona complained, she hated this aspect of being human, she didn't notice it so much in New York, but here, with it being so much further north she definitely noticed the cold when she was human. She hurriedly examined herself to verify that everything was in the right place and without waiting closed her eyes and focused on transforming back into her true form. She was right; the transformation in from human to gargoyle didn't hurt at all, Demona thought, as she shook out her wings and verified that she had the proper gargoyle parts.

As soon as she settled back underneath the sleeping bag with Kendra, Rachael pulled out the bottle of scotch and three small glasses. She poured out three shots worth, and then passed the glasses around. "To our newest and first gargoyle shaman," Rachael proposed her toast.

"To our newest and first gargoyle shaman," Kendra seconded, raising her shot glass in Demona's direction.

The gargoyle raised her own glass to them, taking a moment to admire the amber color of the scotch before taking a sip and letting the smooth fiery liquid burn down her throat.

After recovering from the fiery burn of the amber liquid, Kendra stared into her glass meditatively searching for the right words. Finally, she raised her head and looked at Demona, "The last few days have brought about many changes in your life. May you look back in the years ahead and be as thankful for them as I have been with mine."

"Indeed," Rachael agreed softly. She looked across the fire at the flame-haired gargoyle, "May you be as thankful for them as I have been with mine."

Demona felt her throat tighten with emotion; she knew both Kendra and Rachael would not trade their shamanism and their relationship with their respective spirits for anything. Thinking back to earlier in the evening when she had become the Ancient One's chosen and what he had shown her afterward she replied, "I believe I shall."

Macbeth splashed cold water on his face and stared into the mirror bleary eyed. Usually he didn't remember his dreams and he was thankful for that, but the strange dream he had last night was stubbornly remaining in his memory. Every detail of the dream was as sharp and fresh in his memory as his memory of waking up fifteen minutes ago. The gigantic stag had come to him and asked if he wanted to be free of his bond with Demona, he hadn't even needed to think about it before vehemently agreeing. They had traveled through mists to arrive in a forest clearing; he remembered how odd everything had looked, as if he were seeing shadowy images.

Demona had been there, along with the woman he had seen on the television reports of the kidnapping, Kendra Canmore. There had been another woman there and beside her had been a Eurasian Eagle Owl. He remembered glaring at Demona, and he remembered Kendra Canmore stepping up behind her and unmistakably giving him a clear warning look that promised painful retribution if he did anything against the gargoyle. Then, as if the idea of a Canmore protecting Demona wasn't shocking enough, the gargoyle had apologized to him for her deception in Paris. Apologized and meant it, he could still remember the sorrow, the regret, and shame he had felt from her.

"Impossible," he growled to his reflection in the mirror, Demona hadn't changed in a thousand years why would she change now.

Still…he thought uneasily about what the stag had said that tonight he and Demona would learn about what the three old witches had done to ensure that their vision of the future came to pass. He remembered their words on that day when he had saved Duncan. He had rejected their prophecy promising Duncan that he had no wish to become King, but he could see that his cousin didn't believe him. And then everything had come to pass as the three old witches had prophesied, he had been King after Duncan and then his son for a tragically short time before Canmore had killed Luach to become King after him.

"I'm no longer as certain as I was then that you betrayed me," Demona had said to him, what was it that she suspected, why had she negotiated for him to come again tonight, and who was the stag to her that she spoke to him with such respect.

"Damn it," he complained to his reflection, "I'm acting as if talking giant stags are real, it was just a dream is all."

Still he felt uneasy as he turned toward the shower to begin his day.


	15. Chapter 15

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 15**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/20/08

Dominique reluctantly stirred from her sleep not wanting to leave her dream, only to realize that the light teasing touches were wonderfully real. She moaned and spread her legs wider, offering herself to Kendra's touch. "Shh," her lover whispered, even as she slid her fingers home into the tight warm welcoming depths. Warm lips covered the redhead's and swallowed the sighing groan this action elicited. "We don't want to wake Rachael."

Rachael, Dominique's mind struggled for a moment before remembering the Cree woman in the tent on the other side of the fire from theirs. The redhead stifled she moan rising from her throat as her hips arched up to meet the fingers stroking so deeply inside of her. She opened her eyes and looked up into the wickedly smiling face of her lover. Kendra's fingers began doing truly wonderful things as they teased, touched and stroked. "Evil woman," she hissed quietly knowing that the black haired woman was not going to make remaining quiet easy for her.

Kendra leaned closer, nipped at her ear, "Would you want it any other way?" she whispered huskily, sending shivers down Dominique's spine.

Even as she arched into the tenderly tormenting touch and bit on her own lips to keep quiet, Dominique knew the answer to that question, no, she wouldn't want it any other way. Somehow having to remain quiet seemed to make the sensations all the more intense and it wasn't long before the redhead reached the pinnacle of her release with Kendra's lips upon hers swallowing up her pleasured cries as she clutched desperately at her lover.

Her heart rate was still slowing down and her breathing evening out when Kendra moved to hover above her, "bend your leg please," she whispered.

Curious Dominique did as she requested, when Kendra pressed against her thigh and began rocking steadily against it the redhead was tempted to let her continue. After all certain things were within easy reach and looking up into her lovers beautiful face so marked with pleasure as she moved against her was certainly enjoyable. However, there was really no reason for her to deprive herself of one of her favorite experiences and certainly no reason for Kendra to get off, literally, so lightly this morning.

With an amused smirk, she ignored her lover's soft protest as she straightened her leg, "Shh, don't wake Rachael," she whispered as she scooted further down into the sleeping bag. Like dangling ripe fruit, she thought looking up at the dusky skinned breasts, and who was she to resist such temptation, Dominique thought to herself as she pulled Kendra down closer and took one into her mouth. She heard her lover's stifled moan with satisfaction.

A few moments later she pulled away long enough to whisper, "Do you know what I like best about touching you?"

"No?" Kendra whispered back after a second when it became clear the redhead would not continue until she answered.

"Here," Dominique whispered, she ran her hand down her lovers back and around and then down and in between her thighs. Her lover whimpered in response and the redhead smiled in satisfaction, "You feel so soft, so tender here. Hmm…and so very wet for me, I love touching you, running my fingers over you," she kept her whisper barely audible knowing that Kendra's hearing meant that her lover could still hear her, "feeling how sensitive you are." Kendra arched and shuddered in pleasure, "Yes, especially when I touch you there," Dominique whispered letting her fingers circle and tease mercilessly for a long moment, enjoying the way Kendra twitched and shuddered in response to her every touch.

"But as much as I like touching you here though there is one other place I enjoy exploring more," the redhead felt a surge of carnal satisfaction at her lovers bit off cry. "So warm, so yielding to me, and once I'm inside how you clench around fingers as if to resist my leaving." Kendra whimpered above her, "I can't resist doing it over," her actions suited her words, "and over again just to feel how you yield to me so welcomingly and then try to keep me inside you." She could hear Kendra's harsh breathing as her lover attempted to remain quiet as she arched to meet every movement of the redhead's hand. "Sometimes I accept the invitation and stay to explore awhile, as there are such interesting places to occupy my attention," Kendra shuddered and ground herself against Dominique's hand as the redhead's fingers found and caressed a particularly sensitive spot inside her.

"Goddess," Kendra hissed, her lovers whispered words weaving a spell of arousal around her. Kendra hadn't doubted that the redhead enjoyed making love to her, but she hadn't been sure if Demona would have enjoyed it more if she had been male like the rest of the gargoyles past lovers. Her lover's whispered words, however, made it quite clear that Demona was taking pleasure in the fact that she was a woman.

Dominique fell silent as she concentrated on driving her lover over the edge and to completion; she could feel Kendra was close from the way her lover's body was reacting to her touch. She occupied her mouth with what she had been enjoying earlier, lightly nipping and suckling at the dusky swells swaying so temptingly above her. It wasn't long before Dominique was holding Kendra tightly as her lover silently screamed in a long exhale and shuddered in release above her. The black-haired woman collapsed on top of her briefly, before they rolled over to rest side by side. Their lips met, the kisses tender, slow and loving as they entwined together, basking in their closeness and the sensations following their lovemaking.

Dominique rested her head against Kendra's chest listening to the steady beat of her lover's heart. She felt comfortable and relaxed in the warm cocoon of the sleeping bag they shared and was in no immediate hurry to leave it for the chill of the Canadian winter outside their tent. Kendra was both feminine softness and curves, and lithely muscled thighs and arms and very comfortable and soothing to lie against and be held by.

"Are you two ready for breakfast yet?" Rachael's amused voice outside the tent startled both of them out of their comfortable doze.

Kendra stretched, "Sure," she acknowledged the Cree woman. She squeezed the redhead in her arms and brushed a kiss across her forehead. "Do you want to shower first?" she asked Dominique.

Thirty minutes later, they had both showered and were sitting down by the fire. Kendra was slightly embarrassed to learn that they were having the fish Rachael had caught earlier in the morning. Either the Cree woman had actually wanted fish for breakfast or they needed to work on being quieter.

"I need to leave soon," Rachael announced after they finished cleaning up from breakfast, "it's about a four hour journey to my house from here and I need to get back before anyone notices I've been gone. I'll leave the trailer here, there's no reason to haul it back and forth and we can hide it in the woods. In four days, I'll be back to get the supplies and pick you two up. My house is back in the woods away from the other tribe members so you can stay there overnight. We'll say I met you two walking in the next morning, and took you in for showers and fresh clothing before calling the tribal police." She looked at the two of them thoughtfully, "You will need to say that you found two sets of survival gear otherwise there's no way that one of you wouldn't have frostbite from being out in this for ten days. Work out what you want to say to the police about your journey, it will be believable for you to have traveled twenty-five miles a day if you walked for ten to eleven hours a day. Your feet might be hard to explain, but hopefully no one will think to notice that you don't have any blisters like you should from walking that far and that long without proper boots and socks."

"So when we are found on the eleventh day no one should be suspicious about how fast we traveled," Dominique commented.

"That's what I was thinking," Rachael confirmed.

"Do you know what the police know about the kidnapping?" Kendra asked quietly, thinking of her cousin and what the Irish Elk had said about the Canmore's being enchanted. She now wanted a chance to see if Jon had fey magic influencing him before deciding what to do about him, maybe if they broke the enchantment he would decide to give up the hunt. She wasn't going to bet on it, but at least he should be given the chance.

"Oh," Rachael sounded embarrassed, "I can't believe I forgot…We haven't talked at all about that have we. The last I heard just before I left was that they had located the kidnapper's plane where it crashed."

"Wow," Kendra remarked, "I'm surprised they found it that quick, how in the world did they even know to look for up there?"

"The news said something about an eyewitness at the airport in New York seeing you being loaded onto a plane," Rachael explained, "The police traced the plane from there to Alma where they transferred you into the plane that crashed. The Mounties had the flight plan the plane filed in Alma and from there it was probably a simple matter to follow it and find the plane. They are flying search and rescue missions for you now, I'm sure their efforts have been concentrated further north, but they will be moving south following the path they expect you to travel. You might want to be careful in the next few days about staying out in the open," she cautioned them.

Dominique asked, "Is there any way you can find out more information before we allow ourselves to be found?"

Kendra added, "We need to know if they suspect Jon and his Quarrymen yet, if they do their going to ask what connection Dominique Destine has to the gargoyles." She grimaced, "Actually we need to make sure the police don't have any idea that Dominique is Demona or even that a gargoyle was involved."

Dominique nodded, "That would not be a good situation to walk into unprepared," she said grimly.

Kendra reassured her, "At least now that will be an easy one to disprove."

The redhead realized with surprise that Kendra was correct; Dominique Destine didn't have to disappear at sunset anymore. If Jon Canmore tried to claim she turned into a gargoyle at night, all she had to do was appear in her human form after sunset.

Rachael commented, "I should be able to get that information for you; I have a friend or two on the tribal police that I can ask about what the Mounties know. In the American side, the FBI is in charge of the investigation. One of Wolf's chosen works for them; I can ask him if they suspect anything. I noticed that Wolf was there when the Ancient One made you his chosen so all of Wolf's chosen should know about you by now just as all of Owl's chosen know."

The Owl's chosen's expression turned even more solemn than before, "Demona there is something you need to consider in the next few days and let me know as soon as you come to a decision."

"What is it?" Dominique asked, concerned about Rachael's manner.

Rachael looked them both in the eye with a very serious expression on her face as if to impress upon them the importance of whatever she was about to say before beginning to speak. "Most of us chose to share very little about our shamanism with others, only perhaps our immediate families. The spirits both do and don't understand our concerns, to them it was only a short while ago when shamans were honored members of the community and such gifts as we have were accepted by our communities in most parts of the world. In the places where they weren't accepted, such as parts of Europe and America, it was easy to stay out of sight or simply pretend to have eccentric religious beliefs. Things have changed though in the past hundred years, it's become much harder in this age of computers and government record-keeping to hide our abilities, and almost all of us fear that our gifts will bring us unwelcome attention if they become known." She paused to take a breath, "As I said the spirits both do and don't understand our fear, so they don't mandate that we keep our shamanism a secret. Currently it is up to each individual chosen how much, and with whom, they share it. That said, no one knows about my shamanism except for the other chosen and I suspect Kendra has also told very few if any people," Rachael looked inquiringly at Kendra.

"Demona was one of the first people I told even a little about it to, and at first that was only because she noticed it when we were sparing. Of course, I didn't know about the chosen then either, I've just learned about all of this myself recently, but I know don't feel very comfortable with people knowing, it just seems safer for me if they don't," Kendra admitted. "I don't want people hounding me to do stuff just because they think I should, and I really don't want the government knowing about my immortality and ability to heal."

"I suspect you probably wouldn't have even approached me if you knew what you do now," Dominique remarked quietly.

Kendra winced, "I'd have thought about it a lot more," she reluctantly admitted.

Rachael turned back to the redhead, "I know there is a rift between you and the rest of your family because of what happened at Wyvern Castle and your actions since then, and that if you told them something about what has happened to you here might help mend that rift. What I need you to consider is how much, or even if you will share with them, because it will affect how safe it is for the other chosen to openly interact with you."

Dominique did not even have a moment to begin to consider the implications of this before Rachael continued, "Kendra brought up an essential point when she mentioned that it would be easy for you to disprove that you're a gargoyle. With the rest of us, unless someone saw us transform or do something that most humans couldn't it is easy to hide our changed nature. With you, the fact that you can walk around as a human at night is going to indicate that something about you has radically changed. And chances are you will need to do that to protect your dual identity."

The Cree woman held up a restraining hand when it looked like Dominique was about to speak, "Let me discuss just one more rather important concern of mine before you respond." She paused a moment until the redhead nodded for her to continue, "I don't know of any other chosen that had the attention of the Fey before becoming chosen. You are immune to any spells they try to place upon you as they did in the past, but you are not immune to their destructive spells and those have the ability to permanently kill you just as we have the ability to permanently kill them."

Kendra straightened, alarmed, "You mean they might try to kill her if they realize she's broken free from their control?"

Rachael looked grim, "I don't know what they might do, and honestly the more I hear about these three Fey the less I like them. They seem to care even less than most Fey about mortals. Given what they did when working with the Archmage just to get their revenge against the Magus, who knows how they will react to Demona breaking free from their control and becoming a shaman?" She stared into the redhead's green eyes, "As I said I don't know how they will react, but my advice is that you learn as much as you can about protecting yourself from fey attacks before they have a chance to learn that you aren't under their control anymore."

Dominique's green eyes narrowed in concern, "What about Kendra? Doesn't she need to learn how to protect herself as well?"

Kendra answered before Rachael could, "Part of what the priestess taught me was how to resist offensive fey spell casting. I just need to practice my martial arts, my defense will be how fast I can dodge their attacks and close with them to kill or knock them out."

Rachael chuckled wryly, "She's a Jaguar. They have pretty much one way of reacting to any threat."

"Kill them," responded Kendra calmly, "or if I don't deem them a threat, subdue them."

Dominique's smirked at her lover, she commented dryly to Rachael, "I gather then that I'll have somewhat of a more complex or at least varied response?"

"Your learning life and nature magic correct?" Rachael asked. When the redhead nodded she said, "You will have several different ways you can react depending on the situation. I don't want to interfere with whatever training plan the Ancient One and Wise One have for you so I won't say any more, but I don't think you will be disappointed with the depth and variety of your options," the Cree woman's eyes twinkled.

Dominique stared at her wondering exactly what she meant. Whatever it was it sounded like there was quite a lot she had to learn about nature and life magic. "At the very least then I need to keep my shamanism a secret until I can protect myself if need be, do you have any idea how long it will take for me to learn what I need to know?" The gargoyle could see that Rachael was giving her question considerable thought; it was at least a full minute or so before she responded.

"I'd guess at least two or three months if you put some serious effort into it every day, but I'd guess with your company, and," she paused to glance at Kendra, "your new relationship that six months would be a more accurate guess and you would just know enough to survive against those three. With Kendra's help, you would be able to drive them off, perhaps even do some serious damage to them."

The redhead took in a deep breath; she didn't want to neglect either Kendra or Nightstone. They were both important to her, "So six months minimum then." Kendra frowned, but before she could protest Dominique said, "No, I'm not spending every moment away from work studying, I want to spend time with you."

Kendra stared at her for a moment frowningly, and then her face softened, "Alright, I don't really want to not see you for two or three months either," she admitted, "even if it might be safer if you concentrated on your magic." She looked over at Rachael, "I think we need to come up with something the clan would believe about how Demona can be Dominique at night just in case it's needed for whatever reason." She turned back to Dominique, her blue eyes warm, "And even if it isn't needed to protect your dual identity, I'd like to take you out to eat at night or to go see a play or out dancing without having to worry about being seen by someone associated with the clan."

Dominique looked at her in surprise; she hadn't considered remaining in her human form at night just to go out and do things. She smiled, the thought of doing them with Kendra was enticing, "I don't know how to dance," she admitted. It had always seemed like too much of a human thing to learn, but if Kendra wanted to dance with her, she would consider learning how.

"I'd love to teach you," Kendra responded sincerely.

"So something that it's believable that the effect is reusable or permanent," Rachael said with a smile at them. "What about a magical artifact?" she suggested.

"Where would we find one?" asked Dominique nonplused, one simply didn't find powerful magical artifacts lying about. She should know she had spent several hundred years looking for them.

Rachael grinned roguishly, "Why we make one of course, after all it doesn't have to actually do anything; it just has to appear as if it can to anyone with the ability to examine it for magical properties."

Kendra chuckled, "We're making a bogus artifact?"

Rachael's eyes danced, "Let me get some stuff together and we can do it the night you stay with me. We'll have Bogus Artifact Making 101."

Dominique stared at them both in bemusement; it hadn't occurred to her that they could just make something that would appear to be a magical artifact. She had wondered how much the chosen interacted with each other, and what Rachael was offering to do was an example of how they helped one another. Did she want to give this up on the chance that the clan, that Angela, would even believe her? She remembered her thoughts earlier that her daughter would not believe anything she claimed right now, especially if what she said sounded like an excuse for her actions. She could either make it more difficult for the chosen to help her with only the slightest chance that Angela would believe her, or she could do what she had decided to do earlier, let her actions speak for themselves that she had changed and wait for her daughter to come to her. She didn't need to reveal the full truth to Angela, she could tell her daughter that she had finally decided to give up her war with humanity and make some changes in her life. Given enough time, and lack of any plans to destroy humanity on her part, and Angela would eventually believe her.

Did she even want to tell the clan? Demona asked herself. She knew her daughter would never keep the truth to herself, if Goliath asked she would tell him and he would tell the others and Maza and then who knew else they would tell. It would make it almost impossible for the other chosen to feel comfortable or safe in being associated with her when she couldn't even say who would end up knowing that she was a shaman.

With that thought the redhead made her decision, "I already know what my answer is; I'm not going to be telling the clan. Angela won't keep such a secret from her father and clan leader even if she did believe me, and he would tell others. So I won't be able to tell her anyway."

"Are you sure? You might be able to rejoin them," Kendra said softly.

Dominique shook her head resolutely, "I don't want to, once Goliath knew the information would be shared with too many other people, I won't put myself, you, or the other chosen at risk like that. Besides, I was having trouble with Goliath's leadership even before the massacre and them being turned into stone for almost a thousand years. After being a clan leader myself and after being alone as many centuries as I have, I won't go back to following Goliath's leadership. I don't believe in the things he does and frankly I think he's a foolish dreamer whose actions are going to get the clan and my daughter killed." Dominique looked sad, "Angela is more Goliath's daughter than she is mine. She is like him in so many ways. She belongs with the clan, and I," she hesitated briefly before continuing, "I don't fit in there if I ever did."

"You've always been different," Kendra commented thoughtfully, "with wanting to learn how to read and do sorcery."

Dominique stared at her for a long moment before answering, "Yes I guess I have, I've always wanted to know more than my rookery brothers and sisters were interested in learning." She didn't mention that it was more the fact that she craved knowledge because she felt it gave her power, and power wasn't something a gargoyle was supposed to desire, that set her more apart from her rookery brothers and sisters than a craving for knowledge. It was one of the reasons that Nightstone Unlimited meant so much to her, her company gave her the power and control she had always craved.

"I was always different from the rest of my tribe as well," Rachael commented, "it was one of the reasons the tribal shaman picked me to teach. He wasn't a chosen, just wise in the way of our lore and the use of herbs to heal, but I never felt understood until the Wise One chose me. Not even the tribal shaman could understand my hunger for knowledge, only the Owl spirit did."

Dominique's eyes went curiously to Kendra wondering if she too shared this characteristic.

Kendra chuckled, but there was little humor in it, "I think every gay person feels different from their peers. You start realizing it when you're young and it only gets stronger as you grow older and realize that you actually are different from them." She took in an unsteady breath, "My father had just died and my mother was handicapped and in constant pain from her spinal cord injury when I realized I was gay. I never told her, I wasn't sure if she would be able to accept it and I didn't want her to worry about me. I always thought she would get better that there would be time for me to tell her, but then she died in her sleep one night."

Without any conscious decision, Dominique pulled her lover into her arms and held her tightly, she knew how it felt to keep secrets from ones clan because you feared their rejection if they knew the truth about you. She could tell this still hurt Kendra deeply, the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not her mother would have accepted or rejected her.

Kendra wrapped her arms around the redhead and held on to her tightly, after a moment she continued, "It would have been so much harder on me if it hadn't been for the dreams and then the Jaguar spirit merging with me. There was an acceptance of who I was...of everything that I was...that I desperately needed at that time."

"I'm sure she would have accepted you, even if it took her some time. A mother's love for their child is not so easily put aside," Rachael said gently.

Kendra took in a deep breath and nodded, "I know, I don't actually think that she would have rejected me. I just wish I knew for certain, that I had told her." She pulled gently away from Dominique with a sigh and glanced up at the sky, "You need to get going don't you?" she said to Rachael.

"Yes I do," Rachael acknowledged. "As soon as I learn anything I'll try and catch up with one of you in the spirit realm to let you know. I'm assuming you will be there every night working on your were-jaguar shape?"

Kendra stared at her bemused for a moment, "I hadn't actually thought about us being able to do that. Yea, I'll be working on it every night probably unless Demona wants me to go with them tonight." She frowned, "Speaking of Macbeth and keeping things secret, how is that going to work? I know he thinks it's a dream right now, but when he learns more tonight what's to keep him from figuring things out."

Dominique stiffened in alarm; she hadn't considered how Macbeth's involvement and knowledge of what was happening might affect whether or not she could keep her new status as a shaman a secret.

"Just ask the Ancient One to obscure his memories so that he doesn't remember enough about last night and tonight to piece it together," Rachael said, "He will remember the important parts: that he and Demona are no longer bound together and what the Weird Sisters did, but he won't remember much of anything else. If he does suspect it's real, he won't remember it in enough detail to know anything other than the fact that some anonymous spirit decided to help Demona and he break free from the Weird Sisters. I've seen this done before; the Ancient One will take care of it if you let him know that's what you want."

Dominique took in a deep breath in relief, she didn't want Macbeth's knowing about their bond being broken to take the decision of whether or not to keep the fact she was a shaman secret away from her. She also didn't want to regret asking the stag to show both of them the truth tonight. She had no interest anymore in fighting with Macbeth, or having to worry about him attacking her. Her old ally knowing the truth would hopefully mean that they could just ignore one another and finally live their own separate lives.

"Alright," Rachael said looking up at the sun, "I really must get going now. Look for me in the spirit realm each night; I'll let you know what I find out as soon as I learn something."

When Rachael left, Kendra gave her a quick hug and heartfelt thanks for everything she had done for them. Dominique certainly didn't give the Cree woman a hug, but the forearm grasp and the warmness of her thanks told their own tale of the gargoyle's changed perception of the Owl's chosen from just a day ago.

No sooner had the sound of Rachael's ATV faded in the distance than Kendra turned to Dominique with an intent gleam in her sapphire blue eyes.

"Kendra," the redhead said reluctantly, she didn't want to do this, the thought of it chilled her and filled her with dread, but she needed, she had to do this. She had to tell Kendra about her past, she couldn't let herself become any closer to the other woman without knowing whether Kendra would reject her once she knew about her past.

"Demona?" the gleam in her eyes faded as Kendra took in the uncertain, fearful expression on the redhead's face.

"I…" Dominique hesitated, for a moment, took in a determined breath, "I need to tell you..." her voice trailed off…wavered before she firmed it by sheer force of will, "I need to tell you about some of the things I've done in the past."

"You don't have to," Kendra assured her gently, "It's in the past before the enchantments were removed…"

Yes I do," interrupted Dominique before Kendra could say anymore. "If I don't I'm certain the clan will tell you about what I've done the first chance one of them gets," she said bitterly, "and I don't want the possibility hanging between us that I did something you can't…" she looked away glassy eyed as she fought her emotions.

"That I can't forgive?" Kendra filled in softly.

Dominique nodded; she couldn't bring herself to say the words. Images of the frozen stone forms of humans on their way home from work from shopping crushed into rubble by her mace filled her mind. Kendra could have easily been one of those humans that night, trapped by her spell, shattered carelessly as she mocked and laughed in pleasure at the damage she was doing. She found it hard to meet her lovers…her human lover's…blue eyes. What would Kendra think of her; could she forgive her for that night?

"Alright," Kendra acquiesced seeing how serious and upset the gargoyle was about this. "Let me put more wood on the fire and we can get out the sleeping bag and sit by it."

Kendra pulled the sleeping bag around herself, it was cold today, but thankfully the sun was shining warmly and the trees kept the wind down. Dominique sat down beside her and pulled the material of the sleeping bag around herself, looking more as if she were shielding herself than seeking to keep warm. The black-haired woman shifted closer until their knees touched, and reached out to take one of the pale hands that played nervously with the fabric of the sleeping bag. She knew Demona had killed people, and probably a large number of people over the centuries. Even if the gargoyle had only killed one a year that would add up to over nine hundred, and only two nights ago Demona had talked about the years she had pursued what she thought was her vengeance against humanity, only to find out it was all the Archmage's revenge. That indicated that the immortal gargoyle had most likely killed more than one human a year so the number was probably much more than nine hundred.

"Demona," the green eyes finally looked up to meet hers, "I know you've killed people, both the guilty and the innocent, and that you've probably killed more than a thousand of them, but the Ancient One accepted you as his chosen. To me that means that whatever you did is forgivable or that he thought you weren't responsible for your actions. I can see your worried that whatever it is you have to tell me will upset me so much that I won't want to be with you, but I really don't think that will be the case. I'm not inclined to question his judgment in this, he didn't find you unforgivable and I just don't see myself having any valid reason to decide any differently."

Dominique could see the sincerity in Kendra's gaze, and it gave her hope. There was one thing however, that she felt needed immediate clarification. She didn't want Kendra thinking she had been on some type of bloodthirsty rampage for nine centuries. "I wouldn't say that I've killed more than a thousand humans though, the battles we fought when I was allied with Macbeth were very small by today's standards, maybe twenty to forty warriors on each side."

Kendra stared at her for a moment, rather surprised; she had expected a higher number given that Demona had claimed she had been at war with humanity for nine hundred years. Apparently the war had been a very low-key one, or the gargoyle hadn't been as interested in it as she made it sound like she was. "Ok, when you said you were seeking your vengeance against humanity I sort of thought it was a bit more…active than your indicating now," she said puzzled.

Dominique grimaced, "That was before I found out I had a daughter and that she had left Avalon and came to Manhattan to be with her father."

"Ah," the one word had wealth of understanding packed in it. Kendra was starting to see why Demona had dusted off and gotten re-interested in her plans for wiping out humanity. It was that scorched earth form of protecting that the gargoyle needed to learn how to control. She stared at the redhead waiting for her to speak, however Dominique didn't seem very eager to begin. "Demona I already know about the virus and I'm obviously willing to forgive you for trying to kill me and every other human, is what you have to tell me so much worse than that?" Kendra decided not to mention her doubts about whether or not the gargoyle's virus would have been effective or not. After all, for all she knew it might have worked.

"I did a spell to turn everyone in Manhattan to stone at night and then I took the mace I took from a hunter and I used it and a laser rifle to smash the humans I found on the streets," Dominique blurted out suddenly.

"A hunter," Kendra said, feeling sick. She dropped her eyes to the ground remembering what the Owl spirit had confirmed last night. Demona had used a mace on humans that one of her ancestors had used to kill gargoyles, used because of the Weird Sister's compulsion.

Dominique realized where her lover's thoughts had gone with alarm, she hadn't told Kendra about this for her to feel guilty about the actions of the Canmore hunters. She leaned forward and placed her hands on her lover's shoulders to get her attention. When the sapphire blue eyes rose and met hers she said, "Kendra you are not responsible for the hunters, you are nothing like them." She paused and grimaced, "and they weren't even completely responsible for their own actions courtesy of those three damned Fey."

"But if it weren't for the hunters you wouldn't hate humans so much," responded Kendra quietly.

The redhead sighed in frustration, she couldn't disagree with the statement, but the hunters hadn't made her cast that spell. She had spent centuries wrongly blaming the humans for everything, for what happened at Wyvern Castle, Macbeth for what happened to her clan at Moray, she wasn't going to do it anymore. "No, probably not," she agreed, "but the humans I killed that night weren't responsible for any gargoyle deaths either, they didn't deserve to die because of my hatred for the hunters."

Kendra could hear the regret in Dominique's voice, there wasn't a lot of empathy there for her victims, but there was regret. "What did the Ancient One say?" she asked, taking for granted that the stag spirit knew about it.

"That he was there following the Weird Sisters around, and that he could not tell what actions were my responsibility and which where theirs," Dominique answered feeling disappointed that Kendra was not giving her own opinion on her actions, but seeking out the stag spirit's.

Kendra frowned suspiciously, why had those Fey been there, how did they benefit from what had happened. Her thoughts halted when she caught a glance of the gargoyles face, Dominique looked as if she were about to cry. "Demona?" she asked, alarmed.

"You can't forgive me can you?" Dominique whispered desolately.

"What?" Kendra responded, dismayed that the redhead had interpreted her question that way. "I asked because I wanted to know if his opinion mirrored mine."

Dominique looked at her hopefully and Kendra was upset to see the fragileness in those green eyes, "I won't say that I can forget about what you did, the death of innocents is never something that should be forgotten. However, knowing about the enchantments on you and my ancestors, and understanding their and your history, I can forgive you for what you did if you promise never to do anything like that again," the words were stern, but the tone and look in Kendra's blue eyes were not, they were caring and understanding.

"I won't," Dominique promised, acutely relieved. It was an easy promise for to make, after all she had already promised as much to the Ancient One.

"I know," Kendra replied gently, "Come here," she invited the redhead with open arms.

Dominique immediately went into them, and resting her head against Kendra's shoulder enjoying the warmth of the strong arms holding her. She was feeling almost euphoric about Kendra having forgiven her. That night had been the one thing from her past that she felt the clan could try to use to persuade Kendra to leave her. There were still more things she needed to tell Kendra about, but that had been the one she had truly been frightened that the black-haired woman might not be able to forgive.

Kendra always enjoyed holding Dominique, but she was worried about the insecure way the redhead was still acting. "Demona I wish you wouldn't worry so much about this. I'm more interested in what you are doing now and what you will do in the future than in anything that you did in the past." She hugged the redhead in her arms, "You're already such a different person than the prickly, hostile woman I met that first day. I suspect you were already changing when I first met you, and it's only accelerated now that your free from the enchantments those three Fey put on you."

Dominique considered her lover's words, "Have I really changed that much already?" she asked uncertainly, not sure how she felt about the possibility.

"Yes you have," Kendra said gently stroking the long, fiery-red hair, "Is it really so surprising considering what you've found out about your past and what's happened in the past few days?"

Dominique lifted her head to look musingly at her lover as she considered the question, "Perhaps not. I'm no longer just a puppet for the Weird Sisters to pull the strings and make me act according to their whim. And now I know the hunters were just their puppets as well."

The two of them fell silent, Kendra stroking Dominique's red hair and the gargoyle allowing herself to relax and enjoy the attention. Eventually Kendra asked, "What did you mean by the clan would take the first opportunity to tell me about your past?"

The redhead grimaced, "I know that Elisa Maza or Goliath will seek you out once we return to New York and try and persuade you to have nothing to do with me. They will tell you about all the horrible things I've done, and that I'm manipulating you and only keeping you around because I have some use for you. They'll probably warn you that once I have no use for you I might kill you."

Kendra smirked, "Well you do have a use for me, so I guess I'll just have to make sure you don't get tired of me."

Dominique chuckled, "I doubt they will even consider that, as far as I know there's never been a gay gargoyle. It won't ever cross their minds that it's a possibility. I didn't even know that such a thing existed at all until I happened to see two human female's with each other one night."

"I guess any gays would be pretty well closeted back then if they dared act on their feelings at all," Kendra said, "but surely after three years in New York City they must have come across the concept by now."

"Probably," Dominique allowed, "but they still won't consider it, after all you're a human and I'm supposed to hate humans, and you're a Canmore as well."

Kendra shook her head, "Wouldn't they get the idea thought that you don't hate me after we both return to New York alive and well?"

The redhead sighed, "They'll probably just wonder what scheme I'm planning that I'm keeping you alive and around for."

Kendra looked down at the redhead in her lap in disbelief, "Why would they be so determined to think the absolute worst of you?"

Dominique sat up, "I guess I'd better tell you the rest," she said reluctantly.


	16. Chapter 16

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 16**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/27/08

* * *

Dominique sat up, "I guess I'd better tell you the rest," she said reluctantly.

Thirty-five minutes later, "Those three Fey bitches," Kendra swore, "that damned enchantment they cast on you so you would drive those you cared about away," she growled.

The redhead was surprised by the cussing as Kendra hadn't really sworn around her before, but she was warmed by the emotions provoking it. "Now you know why telling my daughter about what's happened won't help me any. It's too soon; she would just think I was trying to deceive her again. I'll just have to hope that eventually she will see that I've changed and come to me on her own."

Kendra nodded unhappily. A few seconds later, her eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to her, "You know that does bring up an interesting point about Thailog, why didn't you drive him away?" she asked.

Dominique stared at her, her mind a complete blank, "I…I don't know, I should have shouldn't I," she realized.

"Maybe you did know on some level that he was lying, that he didn't actually love you," Kendra offered hesitantly.

Dominique sighed, "Perhaps, the fact that I didn't drive him away indicates that I never really loved him either, or the fact that he was a clone meant that I didn't really consider him to be a true gargoyle." She caught sight of the slight frown on Kendra's face; it didn't take much thought to divine a reason for it. "It's a good thing the Weird Sisters didn't think I could ever care about a human or I would have been canceling our sparring sessions after the second one."

The frown was replaced by a smile and Dominique knew she had been right, "Kendra," she waited until she had her lover's complete attention, "Never doubt that I care for you very much, I've told you more about myself and my past already than I've ever told anyone else including Goliath. I always suspected that he wouldn't love me if he knew the real me, and so I hid the things about myself that I wasn't so proud of away from him. I don't think he ever realized, but I knew our mating wasn't as close as it should be almost from the start." She grimaced briefly, "Knowing that the clan will certainly tell you if I don't, makes it more imperative that I tell you about my past, but I'm also telling you because I want you to know all of me." She looked into Kendra's blue eyes, "I never want to feel as if I need to hide parts of myself from you for you to accept me."

"I never want you to," Kendra replied immediately, "and it's not like I don't have my dark side as well. I know we're supposed to see everything as having innate worth, but when I deem something a threat, I will kill it without the slightest bit of remorse. It's one of the reason's I learned martial arts, so that I could avoid being placed into that situation, it helps me back off defining someone as a definite threat."

Dominique was surprised, despite her occasional talk about killing, Kendra just didn't seem like a cold-blooded killer to her. The woman cared too much to kill without remorse. Then her logic kicked in and she realized what Kendra was saying, the jaguar in her took over when it determined there was a threat and jaguars preferred to kill instantly. "I think I understand, it's the jaguar in you isn't it?"

Kendra nodded, "I killed four men that I could have subdued had I know what I know now. I don't know if they intended to just take my wallet or something worse, but I didn't take the time to find out. I was scared that I couldn't defend myself; I transformed and killed them all. Two of them ran once I killed the other two, I tracked them down and killed them anyway."

The redhead could see the regret in Kendra's blue eyes, "You're not remorseless, or you wouldn't regret killing them," she said softly.

"That's the human part, the other part of me doesn't regret it at all," Kendra said and Dominique suddenly understood part of the sorrow she was seeing in her lover's blue eyes was because Kendra didn't wholly regret killing them.

"Then I'll try and help make sure you're not put in that position again," she found herself promising, "Not unless there really is no other choice." Demona was surprised to find that she meant it. The idea of killing humans that were threatening Kendra or she certainly did not bother her, but since it troubled Kendra she was willing to make the attempt to subdue if it didn't endanger either of them.

Kendra looked surprised as well, "Thank you," she responded after only a brief moment of silence, "I know how skilled you are, so I appreciate that." The wind chose that moment to pick up causing Kendra to shiver. She looked up at the sky and could see that the sun was nearly overhead, "We need to make lunch and then why don't we move into the tent. I don't know about you, but these late nights have been taking it out of me. I could use a nap before tonight."

"That sounds good, I'm tired as well," Dominique immediately agreed. These long nights in the spirit realm were draining physically, mentally, and, considering some of the things she had learned, frequently emotionally as well. She certainly wasn't expecting tonight to be easy in any way. She wasn't sure what she and Macbeth would learn, but she was certain that whatever it was the Ancient One had to tell them wouldn't be pleasant.

After a quick lunch they moved the sleeping bags back into the tent, the wind had increased from the occasional gust to more of a steady breeze with the occasional stronger gust and they were both glad to get out of it. The sky was also clouding over and it was starting to look as if it might snow later.

Dominique could hear the wind outside the tent as it caused the rainfly over the tent to rustle, outside it was cold and windy, but in the tent it was quiet and still except for the sound of their breathing. The down-filled sleeping bag was thick around them and warm, and Kendra's body pressed sweetly against her back, thigh and leg, and one of Kendra's arms was wrapped around her waist. She heard her lover draw in a deep breath, "You feel good," Kendra whispered into her hair.

The redhead rested her arm on top of Kendra's and hugged it tighter to her, "So do you," she acknowledged with a happy smile, lying with her lover like this did feel very good. The woman behind her shifted and she felt the brief press of lips against her temple before Kendra settled again. She felt her lover's body relax and the sound of her breathing even out in sleep, but her thoughts kept her awake. So much had happened during the past three days. Certainly she had experienced more intense grief, after the massacre at Wyvern, and Canmore's betrayal of their agreement and the death of her clan at Moray came immediately to mind. She had never however, in her almost thousand years of life, experienced such an intense mixture of emotions in such a short period of time: anger, sorrow, regret, joy, happiness, and at the back of her mind there was the whisper that added love.

Before meeting Kendra and the Irish Elk spirit, learning about what the Weird Sisters had done to her would have probably sent her seeking Macbeth and death. Now however, though the scope of the tasks she had agreed to do were daunting, she had no desire to seek oblivion. Instead, she felt cautiously optimistic and hopeful when she thought about the future; and that in itself was such a radical change for her. The last time she had truly felt optimistic about the future had been when she was allied with Macbeth, and even then it hadn't been this strange giddy, nervous anticipation she felt now.

Yes, there were things that she was not looking forward to; she was not looking forward to the long months of the clan and her daughter's suspicion and distrust of her motives. She was not looking forward to them trying to turn Kendra against her, and she was almost certain they would make the attempt. Of course, she was also certain that they would fail. Kendra had forgiven her for killing humans that one night, she had understood and forgiven her for her part in her clan's massacre by the Vikings, she knew about Paris and Macbeth, Thailog and the clones, and the Assassin, everything else she had done was relatively minor compared to those things.

None of those difficulties, however, decreased in the least bit the anticipation she felt when the thought about returning to New York and getting started on her tasks. Nor did it diminish the pleasure and happiness she felt when she thought about doing things with Kendra. She wanted to do the things she had heard her employees talking about on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings that used to send her to her office seething with hatred. She could now admit to herself that behind that hatred had been large amounts of jealously, resentment and envy. Jealously and resentment that they were able to do those things without fearing for their lives, and envy that they had someone they wanted to do them with when she did not. Now that the stag spirit had given her control over her changes she could do all the things she had wished she could do, she caressed Kendra's arm around her waist, feeling a sweet upwelling of happiness and joy, and now she had someone to do them with as well.

Dominique remembered Kendra's words, that the best way to defeat the Archmage's revenge was for her to be happy and not alone, well why not. She wanted to go out to eat together and then go to the theater or to a play or perhaps, after she learned how, even out dancing. She wanted them to go to the concerts in Central Park in the summer. She wanted to watch Kendra ice skate…she never noticed when she finally fell asleep with a small smile on her lips and her arm firmly over Kendra's.

Her internal clock telling her it was sunset woke Dominique. Kendra was still asleep and barely even stirred when the redhead slipped out of the sleeping bag; she looked down at the black-haired woman fondly and decided not to wake her. There was time yet before they needed to go to the spirit realm, and she needed to fix enough food for them to have dinner and a substantial meal after they were done. She slipped out of her fleece clothing and quickly into her halter-top and loincloth, and then quietly unzipped the tent and crawled out into the small vestibule formed by the outer tent rainfly. Shivering in the cold air, she resealed the tent behind her and quickly unzipped the outer exit.

She paused briefly in surprise to stare at the fresh layer of snow that blanketed the ground, she grimaced at the thought of having to stand in it barefoot, but there was really no other choice, the tent wasn't quite large enough for her to transform inside of it. Hissing at the cold of the snow, she tiptoed out far enough from the tent to transform. Once the transformation was complete Demona caped her wings around herself to further protect herself from the weather, it was still snowing and the occasional gust blew more from the pine needles above. She glanced at the fire, not surprisingly, it was completely out and she decided against getting another started. They would not be sitting out in the open with it snowing while in the spirit realm tonight, they would have to remain in the tent. She carefully pulled off the grey nylon tarp that covered the stove and food and began preparing dinner; it would have to be stew again, that was the easiest thing to reheat later.

She cut up the meat, browned it and pulled out a bag of frozen stew vegetables. A quick assessment of the remaining food in the cooler showed they had enough vegetables and soup stock to make four more large pots of stew; Rachael must have anticipated that it would be their primary meal. She emptied the dried soup stock into the pot along with water, meat and frozen vegetables, brought it to a boil and then reduced the flame underneath it until the soup was simmering. She covered it, now it would be thirty more minutes before dinner was ready. She pulled out some bread and wrapped it in aluminum foil and set it on the propane stove to warm for them to have along with the stew.

What to do for the next half hour? Well she had intended to explore the Ancient One's lesson's further, but between Rachael's news and discussion and then her need to tell Kendra a few things about her past she hadn't had the time. Recalling the lesson, she attuned her vision to see life energy, in an instant the world turned from greens and browns and white patches of snow into brilliant streams of golden light. Demona gasped, turning around and gaping in amazement at what she saw all around her. Life energy, all the trees around the clearing were lit up with it, reaching up toward the darkening sky and down toward the life giving earth.

Movement in the forest caught the gargoyles eye and she stared at the small brilliantly glowing form in confusion before realizing what she was seeing. It was a hare feeding off the bark of one of the pine trees; she let her vision go back to normal and looked again for the hare. Even with her excellent night vision, she could barely detect the animal as it had a white coat that allowed it to blend almost perfectly into the snow surrounding it, the only thing that betrayed it were the small black spots on the tips of its twitching ears. She altered her vision once again and watched the feeding hare for a few minutes before turning her attention back to the forest around her.

Kendra woke immediately noticing the complete darkness of the tent and the fact that she was alone. There wasn't even the glow of the fire to be seen and when she listened she could hear nothing, but a very slight noise that might be a propane stove. Fighting down her unease, she rolled out of the bag and dressed in fleece and the windproof jacket and pants.

Crawling out of the tent, she first noticed the fresh snow on the ground, but it only held her attention for a moment, she was more interested in locating Demona. It wasn't hard to spot her; the only question in Kendra's mind was what in the world was the gargoyle doing? She glanced around the camp. It had been the propane stove that she had heard from the tent, there was a large pot on the lit stove and she could guess that it had stew in it. She looked back at the motionless gargoyle crouched by the base of one of the pine trees that bordered the clearing and frowned in puzzlement. As far as she could tell Demona was intently studying the trunk of the pine tree, the tip of gargoyle's tail flicked up and back down and then was still for a few seconds before repeating the motion again.

Kendra studied the gargoyle for a few more seconds, completely bemused by her behavior before walking quietly over to crouch beside her. She stared at the tree trunk, it was a pine tree trunk rather like all the others around, the bark was reddish-brown, deeply ridged and scaly. Sections of the bark looked like they had flaked off revealing newer reddish bark underneath, and snow clung to it on the side facing the wind. Kendra could see nothing about this particular tree that warranted such intent study. "Demona, what are you doing?" she finally asked, completely baffled by her lover's behavior.

Demona looked up abruptly as if startled by her speaking; the gargoyle stared up at her silently an expression on her face that Kendra found difficult to decipher. Awe, wonder, she decided though she could not figure out why the gargoyle would look at her that way. "Demona?" she asked again, her tone slightly worried.

"Watching life energy," the gargoyle finally answered in a soft tone, she rose and turned to face Kendra reached up and cupped her lover's face. There it was much stronger now that the distance was less, "Our life energies reach out toward one another, when I touch you they even mesh slightly."

Kendra had a sudden sympathy for Demona over the night when she first told about the gargoyle about the fey enchantments on her. It was disconcerting to have someone look inside you and see something that you couldn't see. "What does it look like?" she asked softly, matching Demona's tone.

"Like golden streams of sunlight with motes of deeper gold and forest green," Demona said, she caressed the side of Kendra's face careful of her talons. "When I touch you fainter wisps of energy branch out toward me, and mine toward you," she stepped closer, looking intently at where her hand rested upon her lover's skin. "Fascinating, some of the motes are actually moving back and forth between us," she said, a soft smile lighting her face.

Kendra watched her lover's face, feeling a slight pang of envy over Demona's ability to see what was obviously an amazing sight given the gargoyles awed expression.

"I wish you could see," Demona said, and now Kendra had the impression that the gargoyle was looking at her rather than within her.

Kendra smiled wistfully, "So do I it sounds beautiful."

"It is," Demona assured her.

Kendra thought about the things she had learned from the priestess and the Jaguar spirit, and then about Rachael's estimate that it would take two months of hard studying for Demona to learn just the basics. She grinned, "My talents lie in another direction. I'll leave the life and nature magic and the associated studying to you."

The hand that had been touching Kendra's face dropped back to the gargoyle's side as Demona chuckled softly and gave the black-haired woman a wry look, "You would have to remind me of that part, all I can do with it right now is see it."

"You'll learn," Kendra said confidently, "From what Rachael hinted, I'm sure in a year or so you will be doing things that amaze me."

Demona nodded, "Hopefully," she said in a thoughtful tone. She turned and looked toward the propane stove, "The stew should be done by now, we should eat and go." She looked up at the sky, "It's stopped snowing, but I thought we would remain in the tent tonight?"

"Probably a good idea, it seems like it's colder than last night," Kendra agreed with a glance at the thin slivers of cloudy sky she could she through the pine canopy. She walked over to the stove and carefully lifted the lid of the pot letting the steam escape out the far side, "smells ready to me," she commented.

The two of them returned to the tent to eat their dinner. Afterward Demona went briefly back out to scrub the dishes with fresh snow, store the remaining stew for later, and secure the tarp back around the stove and food. When she returned to the tent, they curled up together inside the sleeping bag once again. This time Demona held Kendra, one wing tucked beneath her and the other wrapped over them. The gargoyle's green eyes half closed in pleasure as she felt Kendra stroke the inside of her wing gently with her fingers. If they weren't expected in the spirit realm tonight, she might entice Kendra to explore some of the differences between their bodies more; she was looking forward to having her lover's gentle fingers caress her wing joints and other sensitive areas like the upper part of her tail. However, they did not have time for it tonight, and the thought of what the stag was going to show Macbeth and she put an immediate damper on her ardor. "As good as that feels, I need to go meet the Ancient One," she reminded Kendra softly.

The fingers stroking the inside of her wing stilled and in the dark she saw Kendra turn her head and look back at her, "Something I should remember?" she heard the interest and amusement in the woman's voice.

"Mmm," Demona smiled, "you haven't really explored my true form yet." The smile faded as she recalled yet again what was on the agenda for this night.

Kendra's said softly, "I'll keep that in mind for later. Let's get going, I can see you're worrying about tonight."

The gargoyle didn't bother denying it; she closed her eyes and began breathing in deep even breaths. She did not need Kendra's assistance tonight; traveling to the spirit realm this third time was as easy as calling up a detailed mental image of her home or office. She looked around as soon as they emerged into the shadowy realm and was grateful to see the Ancient One waiting for her along with the Owl and Jaguar spirits, but without Macbeth. Rachael was not present either, and Demona guessed it was too soon for the Owl's chosen to have news for them.

"Good evening Wise One, Jaguar," she greeted the other two spirits respectfully before turning to her own patron, "Ancient One, I wish to speak with you about Macbeth and how much he will remember of this," she indicated the shadowy realm around them, "And you and I."

Demona heard Kendra's greetings to the waiting spirits behind her as the great stag regarded her intently for a moment, "You do not wish him to remember that you are my chosen," he said perceptively. "Show me your reasons for this request." The wise brown eyes caught her own as they did when the spirit was teaching her, but instead of information passing from the spirit to her there was a sense of waiting. It took her a few seconds to realize what the Ancient One was waiting for, hesitantly she thought back to the conversation with Rachael earlier in the day. It was an odd sensation to feel the information almost pulled from her, but she had to admire the efficiency of it, it took a very short time for the entire conversation to be reviewed in this manner.

"The Wise One's chosen is not aware of the fact that Oberon has commanded that the Fey remain on Avalon. The Weird Sisters are not an immediate danger to you, but he is fickle and they are skilled at evading his rules without actually breaking them," the Ancient One said once the gargoyle was done. "As for your other concerns, I have not studied humanity enough to judge whether or not your fears have merit, however, I am aware that many of the chosen have recently decided to keep their identities hidden because of similar concerns. Therefore I will defer to your judgment in this; I will ensure that Macbeth does not remember anything that will allow him to realize you are my chosen."

"Thank you," Demona replied, "The human's have a saying, it is better to be safe than sorry. It would seem to apply to this situation."

The Irish Elk spirit's ears twitched and Demona wondered yet again if that indicated amusement or some other emotion. "I will return soon with Macbeth," was all the stag said before he turned to leave.

She watched as his majestic form disappeared into the mists and then turned toward Kendra and the other two spirits. The were-jaguar form that Kendra had pulled into herself the previous night was once again standing motionless next to her lover and the two spirits. She moved closer, she hadn't had an opportunity yesterday night to get a good look at the were-jaguar form Kendra was working on.

"Now duplicate this form and let us begin working on the winged version," the Owl spirit said as Demona stepped up next Kendra. The gargoyle whipped her head around to look at the woman beside her in astonishment.

A smile played around her lover's lips, Kendra turned her head enough to look at Demona out of the corner of her eye, "Surprise."

Demona stared at her for a moment longer, feeling her lover's mischievous humor, then turned back to the were-jaguar form and stared at it, trying to imagine it with wings. It wasn't hard, after all the mutates all had them, Kendra would probably end up looking somewhat like the mutate called Talon the gargoyle decided. The Eagle Owl spirit standing on the other side of the figure twitched its black and white barred wings at that moment and the gargoyle realized that Kendra might chose to go with avian like wings rather than gargoyle like wings. "What type of wings are you using?"

"I don't know yet, I haven't chosen between feathered wings or gargoyle like wings," Kendra admitted. "Do you have a preference?"

The slight husky note in Kendra's voice had Demona turning to look into her lover's blue eyes. The warmth in them, and the feelings she was sensing from Kendra, made it quite clear why her lover was asking. Demona's mind went blank as she stared at the motionless were-jaguar figure. Did she have a wing type preference? Satiny smooth feathers, bare warm skin or perhaps even a silky soft covering of fur wrapping around her body and pulling her close to her lover.

"Have I broken you?" Kendra's amused voice brought Demona out of her disjointed thoughts.

The blue gargoyle looked over at her lover, noting the broad smile and mirth filled, yet warmly affectionate, sapphire eyes that matched the emotions she was sensing from the woman. "Of course not," she replied loftily, settling her wings into a cloak like form with her wing claws on her shoulders. "I was just trying to think of what you would look like with avian type wings instead of gargoyle wings," she claimed trying to keep the smile off her own face.

"Mmm," Kendra smirked, "if you say so." She eyed Demona's wings, "Of course, that's a reason to go with gargoyle style wings, I don't think I could arrange avian wings in the different ways I've seen you do with yours."

"That is correct you could not, avian wings are different from gargoyle wings," the Owl spirit commented, "for that matter so are bat wings."

Demona thought about it for a moment, she glanced over at the Eagle Owl's wings for confirmation, "I'd have to agree, the main thing that's different about gargoyle wings versus avian or bat wings is that the humerus is of an equal length to the radius and ulna of the forearm of the wing instead of being shorter. That's what allows us to arrange our wings to look like a cloak with the wing claws holding onto the shoulders or around our shoulders like a cape with the wing claws clasped together in front." she said. "If you make that one change it shouldn't really matter what your wings are covered with, I've met gargoyles with feathered wings and ones with furred wings, though the membrane type wings like mine are much more common."

Kendra turned to stare frowningly at the were-jaguar form, she lifted her hands and placed the fingers on the figures forehead and then drew her hands apart. The form wavered for a second and then duplicated itself and separated, one following Kendra's left hand, the other following her right. Once they were about a foot apart, Kendra removed her hands and then she reached out and drew the left most figure into herself.

The gargoyle didn't comment, though she found it interesting that Kendra was keeping a non-winged version of the were-jaguar form. It also caused her to wonder just how many different forms the black-haired woman could make.

"Could you hold out your wings for me?" Kendra asked Demona. The blue gargoyle obediently extended her wings, knowing that Kendra wanted to get a good look at their structure so she could duplicate it on her were-jaguar form. Kendra moved around to stand in front of Demona, taking in the structure of the gargoyle's wings and the proportion of wing to body mass. She then moved around the gargoyle, reaching out to touch the outermost wing bone as she did so and letting her fingers trail along its edge as she began examining the wing structure closely. She examined the three small wing claws closely and grinned as they briefly gripped her fingers before releasing them. She then moved her attention to the wing's forearm, letting her fingers feel the radius and ulna beneath the skin and flesh. "You realize that you actually have four arms right?" she asked the gargoyle. Demona turned her head and glanced back at the black-haired woman inquiringly. "In birds and bats the front limbs evolved into wings, but you have both arms and wings," Kendra said.

"I hadn't actually thought about it," Demona admitted looking at Kendra's hand on her wing forearm, "but I guess we do don't we."

Kendra nodded, and continued her visual and physical examination of the wing underneath her fingertips, moving onto the humerus.

If they had been alone, Demona would be very tempted to let Kendra continue touching her wings and discover for herself what parts of them were sensitive. However, they were not alone and so she needed to stop Kendra before her hands drew any closer to her wing joint and everyone present got an education in the erogenous zones of gargoyles, "Kendra, remember when I said that I would like for you to explore my wings?"

The hands on her wing hesitated, "Yes…?" Kendra strung out the word in a puzzled tone.

"Now isn't really an appropriate time and your getting rather close to where my wings would be very sensitive to your touch," Demona quietly informed her. Movement from the two spirits with them drew the gargoyle's attention, but when she looked their way both the Owl and Jaguar were staring intently at the were-jaguar figure.

"Oh," Kendra said abruptly and pulled her hands away from Demona's wing feeling both embarrassed and interested as she looked at the joints, which connected the wing to the gargoyle's back. That area was the only place she hadn't touched so she had a fairly good idea where the sensitive area Demona was referring to was located. Kendra cleared her throat and forced her thoughts away from where they had been headed, "Could you move your wings around then so I can see how the joint moves?"

Smirking, the flame-haired gargoyle began moving her wings back and forth as Kendra watched intently. After a full minute of moving her wings slowly back and forth, Demona crossed her arms across her chest and asked, "How much longer do I need to do this?" She stared in amusement at Kendra who had knelt and was now directly underneath the gargoyles wings so she could see how they moved from both the front and back.

Kendra's blue eyes met her amused green one's, and the black-haired woman blushed, "Oh sorry, umm, just one more thing," she said standing back up and stepping around the gargoyle to stand at her back. "If you could bring your wings as far back as possible and hold them please." Kendra stared intently at how the muscles moved as the gargoyle did as she asked and then stepped to the side to see how the muscles in the shoulders looked. "And as far forward," she said stepping around to the back again as Demona swept her wings forward. "Ok I think I've got it," she said absently as she moved over to the were-jaguar form.

A soft clicking sound drew Demona's attention to the Eagle Owl spirit; she was snapping her beak together rapidly. The Jaguar spirit sitting next to her was regarding his chosen with what the gargoyle was ready to swear was amusement in his green eyes. Her attention was pulled from the two spirits to Kendra as the woman touched the back of the figure in front of her and then drew her hands apart, in between them black gargoyle wings formed. Kendra had gone with the same type of wing claws as she had, Demona noticed seeing the three digits.

"A bit wider I think," Demona suggested.

"A hands length more to get the proper amount of wing area for your mass," the Owl spirit suggested at the same time.

Kendra glanced at both of them before turning back to her creation and doing as they suggested.

Demona moved until she was standing directly in front of the now winged were-jaguar form. The wingspan wasn't quite as large as Goliath's, but then the were-jaguar form wasn't as bulky or quite as tall as her ex-mate either. "That looks right," the gargoyle gave her opinion.

"Alright, let's see if I've got the muscle attachments right then," the were-jaguar wing's relaxed from fully extended to a more natural arrangement with the wing arm forming half arcs on either side of the figure's head.

"Demona," the Ancient One's voice summoned the gargoyle from the mists.

The flame-haired gargoyle stared in the direction the voice came from, but could see nothing. She frowned puzzled until realizing that the great stag had probably brought Macbeth with him and didn't want her old ally to see Kendra and the other two spirits. She turned toward her lover, "I need to go."

Kendra nodded, looking off in the direction from which the voice came from, "I should probably stay away for this one, to keep myself out of Macbeth's memories. Give the Ancient One less work to do."

Demona's eyes showed her thanks for Kendra's understanding why she wasn't asking the black-haired woman to come along with them tonight. She stepped around the were-jaguar figure in between her and Kendra and pulled her lover into her arms, "Thank you," Demona said softly as Kendra's arms wrapped around her waist. She pressed her lips against the black-haired woman's in a soft sweet kiss before pulling reluctantly away, "I'll let you know what I find out," she assured her as she turned away and began heading toward where the stag's voice had come from.

A wave of supportive strength and warm caring emotions wrapped around Demona, she paused, turned around, and looked back at the source of the feelings directed at her. Kendra's sapphire blue eyes met hers, a sweet ache filled Demona's chest as she saw the emotions she was feeling mirrored in her lover's eyes. The gargoyle allowed herself a moment to take in the support Kendra was offering her before turning resolutely back to the mists and to where the Ancient One was waiting for her. Demona knew she wasn't going to like what she was going to learn tonight, but it was easier now to face it, even though Kendra wasn't physically with her, she wasn't alone.


	17. Chapter 17

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 17**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 03/31/08

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Kendra and the two spirits had barely disappeared behind Demona when the form of the Irish Elk spirit and Macbeth appeared out of the mists before her.

"Demona," Macbeth scowled as he said it, but there seemed to be less venom in his words tonight than last night. He also seemed to be tense and his eyes glanced frequently towards the drifting mists around them suspiciously.

"Macbeth," Demona greeted him evenly, ignoring his manner, at least he wasn't glaring at her as he had last night. "Ancient One," she greeted the great stag, as if this were the first time she had seen the spirit this night instead of the second.

The Irish Elk spirit dipped his head toward her in acknowledgement before saying, "Let us begin with the arrival of the humans and gargoyle eggs from Wyvern seeking refuge in Avalon." The stag lifted his antlered head and snorted, the shadowy land and mists around them wavered and reformed into a large barge with three fey women standing upon it. Demona instantly recognized them and the barge. This was where the Weird Sisters had taken Macbeth and her to hand over the Eye of Odin, the Phoenix Gate and the Grimorum Arcanorum to the Archmage.

"Where are we…?" Macbeth demanded, only to fall silent as he caught sight of the Weird Sisters.

"Stand aside and let us pass," the voice of the Magus drew the gargoyle's attention. By the way everything was outlined in red, Demona knew her eyes were flaring with her anger. This was the foolish human who had used the Grimorum to put a spell on her and had set into motion the events that led up to the Vikings sacking the castle and killing her clan.

"You know better than that Magus," the Weird Sisters replied their arms stretched out, denying the two boats and their occupants' entrance. "Oberon has named us guardians of his island. No magic's may enter here save Avalon's own."

"You cannot make us go back or the princess could die, the eggs could die," a young defiant voice drew the gargoyles attention to the third boat. She instantly recognized the two humans in it. It had been many centuries since that night when the young boy had wanted to play with the trio and his mother had thrown a stick at Brooklyn, but she still recognized the woman and boy. The burlap-covered mounds in each of the boats had to be the clan's eggs Demona realized.

"You screech like barn owls," the Weird Sisters said, "Meaningless chatter of meaningless lives." They raised their arms whipping up the waves and causing the ropes that held the boats together to snap, threatening to dump the humans and the eggs into the lake.

"Magus do something," Princess Katherine cried in fear.

"So owls you will be," the Weird Sisters said as they increased in size, towering above the barge and glowing with greenish fey energy.

The Magus was flipping desperately thru the Grimorum, "Per iussum meum fierateres ut optare," he said just in time, holding up the Grimorum like a shield as the Sisters directed the fey energy they had build up towards him.

When the Weird Sisters turned into barn owls and flew off screeching, Demona found herself reluctantly impressed with the Magus's quick thinking. There was no way he could have stopped the three Fey had he tried to do so by pitting his magical strength against theirs, so reflecting their power back on them was a very smart choice on his part. The gargoyle smirked in amusement as she watched the human mage send the three owls who had attempted to attack him tumbling in the air with three well-placed staff blows. Black, yellow, and white feathers were flying everywhere, it wasn't quite as bloody as she would like, but watching the Weird Sisters' humiliation was certainly satisfying even if it was the Magus handing it to them.

"Magus you did it," exclaimed Princess Katherine as she stepped into the young mage's boat from the one she shared with a blonde woman Demona did not recognize.

The Magus was still staring toward the large barge where the three Weird Sisters turned owls had flown. "I cannot go with you to Avalon. I cannot bring the Grimorum." He picked up the book from the bottom of the boat where he had dropped it when the owls attacked him. "This book is as good as a map to Avalon. If Constantine or his sorcerers get a hold of it…"

"Then leave it," said the unknown blonde woman.

The three of them, the stag spirit, Macbeth and she watched as the small group decided to split, the blonde woman and the woman who had thrown the stick at Brooklyn taking the Grimorum with them so the other three humans and the gargoyle eggs could seek safety on Avalon. As much as the peasant woman had angered her by attacking the three young gargoyles and calling them monsters, Demona felt a pang of sympathy for the human as the stout woman stared back through the mists for a last look at the young son she was leaving behind. She knew only too well the pain of being separated from one's child.

The sudden appearance of the two Archmages brought the gargoyles attention back to the barge where they were standing. One Archmage looked as she remembered him from when she was his apprentice; the other Archmage possessed the Eye of Odin and the Phoenix Gate. The Archmage with the Eye and Gate transformed the three owls back to their original forms.

"Oberon will not be pleased," said the blonde sister. "He entrusted us to guard the gates of Avalon," said the black haired sister. "And now we are banished from that fair isle by a magician's parlor tricks," finished the white haired sister.

"Might I suggest an alliance," proposed the Archmage possessing the Gate and the Eye.

Selene arrogantly answered, "We make no pacts with sorcerers."

The Archmage asked slyly, "Not even if I can promise you revenge against these mortals?"

The Weird Sisters looked thoughtful, "We are listening."

"This will take some time," the Archmage responded coolly.

"What is time to an immortal," the white haired Luna replied with equal chill.

"Then I will see you again in twenty five years," the Archmage said with a smug smile, "and soon we will all have our vengeance." He held the Phoenix Gate on his chest and disappeared in the fiery orb of its effect. The Weird Sisters disappeared soon afterward as well.

The scene around them stilled, "This is the first event of a chain of events that will eventually end in your agreement to let the Weird Sisters create a magical bond between you," the great stag said, "the formation of the alliance between the Archmage and the Weird Sisters. The Archmage seeks revenge against Demona, Goliath, their gargoyle clan and the Magus for opposing his plans to kill Prince Malcolm and take Castle Wyvern. The Weird Sisters seek revenge for their humiliation and banishment from Avalon against the Magus, Princess Katherine, the young human called Tom, and the gargoyles."

Macbeth was looking back and forth between the Irish Elk and Demona, "I don't understand, how did I get pulled into this?" he asked confused.

The great antlered head turned in the former king's direction, "I observed the events you have just witnessed during one of my many visits to Avalon. As the time approached that the human sorcerer spoke of, I returned and followed the Weird Sisters closely, waiting to see what occurred."

The scene around them shifted again, now they were standing in a field with mounds of hay, from the chill in the air and the bare trees it was winter. The sounds of battle reached her sensitive ears and Demona turned to look in the direction the noise came from, she saw herself and other gargoyles of her clan fighting against human soldiers. The small battle was taking place next to one of the stone fortifications that the humans used to store food; they were watching one of the many raids she had led to secure food for her clan.

"That female gargoyle once served as my apprentice. She betrayed me!" the Archmage's voice drew Demona's attention away from the fight to where the two Archmages stood observing it.

"She's not an ally, she's cannon fodder," the Archmage with the Eye and Gate commented coldly. "Trust me we're not doing her any favors." The two figures of the sorcerers reddened as Demona's eyes burned in anger and she almost missed the appearance of the three Fey. The Weird Sisters and both Archmages watched as her younger self finally broke down the door of the food silo and she and another gargoyle carried away as much food as they could carry.

The scene shifted again as they followed the Weird Sisters. Now they were standing on the battlements of Moray Castle watching a young Macbeth learning from his father how to swordfight. The teenaged Macbeth ended up on his back in a muddy puddle as his father chuckled.

"Don't tell me this young pup is another recruit," said the grey robed Archmage.

"Macbeth will become a great warrior…," said the Archmage with the Eye and Gate, "if he survives to manhood."

The two Archmages turned toward the Weird Sisters who stood behind them. The Archmage with the Gate and Eye formed likenesses of Macbeth and Demona in his hands and showed them to the three Fey. "Protect these two. Guide their courses."

The three Fey were silent as they examined the sorcerer intently, finally the white-haired sister spoke, "Oberon's law magically forbids us from directly interfering in human events."

The Archmage smiled grimly, "The law that cannot be broken can surely be bent."

The Weird Sisters glanced among each other silently, finally the blonde one smiled, "This is true," she observed slyly.

The two Archmages walked a short distance before the one with the Gate and Eye turned around and spoke once again to the three Fey, "Watch for the Grimorum, the Eye of Odin and the Phoenix Gate."

"But you already have the Eye and the Gate," observed Selene in a confused tone.

The Archmage laughed heartily, "But I didn't have them until you three brought them to me. We will meet again at the watery door to Avalon in 975 years." Moments later the two Archmages disappeared as the more powerful of the two used the Phoenix Gate, the Weird Sisters followed moments later turning into cloudy shapes that dissipated in the wind.

The scene around them shifted and they were once again at the barge, the Archmages and Weird Sisters were there. The Archmage with the Eye and Gate was laughing, "I forgot something, special instructions for our two warriors." He stopped laughing and continued in a cold tone, "Ensure they both remain powerful warriors until we require them. Make sure they do not become contented with the immortality you will grant them so they live until it is the proper time for our revenge. They should not be concerned with descendants or lovers that might make them soft and compassionate. They should have no ties to anyone but each other, and that the ties that bind them together should be ones of enmity. Bitterness and hatred make warriors that are hard and merciless, and that is the type of warrior we want them to be when it is time for them to serve us." As soon as he finished he gripped the Gate once again and was gone. The three Fey stared at where he had been for a while longer and then seemed to confer silently with one another. A few minutes later they too disappeared.

"Wait," Macbeth said before they could follow the three Fey. Demona noticed that his tone was pleading instead of commanding. "I don't understand. I won't say I was a bad warrior because I wasn't, but I doubt I was the best warrior that this Archmage could have chosen."

The Irish Elk dipped his antlered head, "You are correct, you were chosen because you were chosen."

"What?!" exclaimed Macbeth.

Demona was confused as well, but she had experience with the Gate and knew that it interacted strangely with time.

"It is a side effect of how the Phoenix Gate artifact interacts with time," lectured the spirit, "You were chosen by the Archmage possessing the Gate because before he possessed the Eye of Odin, the Phoenix Gate and the Grimorum Arcanorum, he watched as the Archmage that did possess them chose you. The Gate has caused a circular causality loop in the time stream in which you are chosen by the Archmage because he saw you being chosen before by himself."

That hurt Demona's head, it made sense in a strange kind of way, but it hurt her head to think of it. Of course, it looked as if it hurt Macbeth's head even more, she thought as she looked at the deep frown upon his face.

Without any notice, the scene around them changed from the sunlit barge to darkness and cold. They stood on rocky ground next to a cliff; there was the opening of a cave only a few feet away from them.

"Do you think the humans want peace? Peace, we are all that are left of our kind in this world, and the hunter begrudges each of us our lives." Demona heard her voice say from the interior of the cave, "I will not let him win." It was enough to spark the gargoyle's memory; she knew when and where they were.

The Weird Sisters appeared at the cavern entrance, their forms wavered and changed into three very old gargoyles stand there, one with black hair, one with blonde and one with white, "We bring word of the hunter," the yellow haired one announced.

The Demona of this time greeted them from inside the cavern, "I do not know who you are, but you are welcome among us. Give me your news."

The black haired gargoyle spoke next, "He stalks a new human target at Castle Moray."

Then the white haired gargoyle, "If you and Clan Moray ally against your common enemy you can defeat the Hunter."

Demona whispered the words she had said next along with herself, "I need no human allies, let the hunter strike at his target. For as he does he becomes the prey, my prey." She was not surprised when the scene around them wavered once again and now they were once again at Castle Moray up on the battlements.

The despairing cry of "Father!" came from the courtyard below them. Demona didn't bother to follow Macbeth over to the edge of the battlements to look below; she looked instead into the sky seeking her younger self. She remembered this, she had dallied at the cave pondering the old gargoyle's words after they had disappeared, and had arrived at the castle just in time to see the young Macbeth cry out and kneel at the edge of the parapet reaching helplessly after his father who the Hunter had just thrown to his death.

"No please," Demona heard Gruoch cry out as she finally caught sight of herself diving from the sky. She stepped to the edge of the battlements to watch herself stop the Hunter from striking down the young Macbeth from behind. Shocked at how old and thin she looked, she silently watched the battle between the Demona of this time and the Hunter.

She grimaced when she saw the Hunter throw the young Macbeth at the Demona standing on the parapet below, that Demona used her tail to keep Macbeth from tumbling into her and sent the young man almost flying over the battlements. As it was, he was desperately holding onto the stones, hanging over the same drop that had killed his father just minutes before. Gruoch ran to him and grabbed onto his arms, trying to help, but was obviously not strong enough to pull the boy up.

Demona knew the Weird Sisters were somewhere about; otherwise, the Irish Elk spirit would not have been here to see these events. She altered her sight looking for fey magic upon the other Demona and was surprised to see that there was none. She saw herself hesitate, torn between killing the Hunter and saving the two young humans who were slipping over the edge of the battlements, saw herself chose to save them as the Hunter took the opportunity to escape. This had been her free choice, Demona realized, she hadn't been certain any longer what had been her choices and what had been influenced by the Weird Sisters, but choosing to save the two young humans instead of taking her vengeance upon the Hunter had been her untainted choice. The realization left her strangely satisfied.

The Demona of this time snarled in frustration once she realized the Hunter had escaped and left, flying back toward the cavern where she had left the others. Demona watched her leave from the battlements above, she had forgotten how hard life had been for them before joining with Macbeth. How many times had her clan woke with gnawing bellies and turned to stone in the morning even hungrier. Seeing how old, thin and weak she had been reminded her only too starkly of the reality of this time.

The scene around them changed once again and now they were standing in a richly appointed room, a young dark haired man paced anxiously in front of three large windows. "Duncan," growled Macbeth identifying the man instantly.

Demona examined the dark haired young man more closely; she had never seen Duncan during this time, only as a mature human several years in the future. There was a knock at the door, Duncan turned instantly toward it as it opened. The Hunter entered. She growled upon seeing him, at the same time Macbeth straightened abruptly and exclaimed, "This is what the old crone referred to when she said that Gillecomigan was quick to do Duncan's bidding."

Demona looked at Macbeth who was glaring with gritted teeth at Duncan; it took her a second to make the same connection her old ally had made. She had almost forgotten the black haired old gargoyle saying something about the death of Macbeth's father and the strange globe she had given Macbeth. Of course, now she knew that the old gargoyle had actually been the Weird Sister called Selene.

"Prince Duncan," the hunter greeted cordially.

"At last," Duncan said, "What news of Clan Moray, Gillecomigan?"

"Findlaech, high steward of Moray," the hunter said while drawing out a golden medallion from his doublet, "is dead. As you commanded." The hunter bowed as he handed over the medallion to Duncan.

"And Macbeth?" asked Duncan looking with satisfaction at the medallion in his hands.

"He lives," the hunter said while drawing off his hood revealing the scarred face of Gillecomigan.

Demona stared at him intently, she knew the hunter blamed her for the scratches upon his face, but honestly, she didn't remember giving them to him. She knew the original wounds couldn't have been that bad or the human would only have one eye, so obviously she hadn't meant to hurt him that badly. The scarring from the original scratches was very noticeable, however, and she guessed that the wounds had become infected, leaving more scarring than they should have upon the human's face.

"Oh, no matter," said Duncan, he stepped over to Gillecomigan and laid a companionable hand upon his shoulder, "Finlaech was loved, with his support his son could have been king, but without his father Macbeth is just another poor relation." Duncan turned toward the double doors at the opposite side of the room and clapped his hands loudly, "Bring food and drink, this is cause for celebration." The doors opened wide revealing three feminine forms that looked suspiciously familiar with their yellow, black and white hair.

"The Weird Sisters," growled Demona recognizing them even though they currently appeared to be human females. Suspicious, she examined Duncan and Gillecomigan once again, this time for traces of fey magic. The tell tale green strands were there, more on Gillecomigan than Duncan. "Did they arrange all this?" Demona asked the Ancient One.

"They did not cause Duncan to make the decision to kill Findlaech, nor did they manipulate Gillecomigan into killing him," the Irish Elk commented, staring at the two men in question. "The Fey did manipulate Gillecomigan to hesitate in killing young Macbeth to give you time to arrive and into leaving when he did instead of staying and attempting to kill you and Macbeth. They also manipulated Duncan into not ordering the hunter to go back and kill young Macbeth."

"They ensured that he remained alive," Demona said, glancing over out of the corner of her eye at Macbeth.

Her old ally looked as if he were about to reply, but Duncan saying, "You have done well my Hunter, your reward is the stewardship of Moray," drew Macbeth's attention instead. He glared at Duncan with clenched fists looking as if he would like to do nothing more than leap upon the man and pummel him.

The scene around them froze with Gillecomigan smiling in satisfaction and Duncan looking pompously pleased as the three Fey set the table for the two men's celebratory feast. When it changed again, Demona recognized the main hall of Castle Moray. It was filled with humans; she looked around for some clue as to what was happening.

A strangled cry from Macbeth drew her attention; he was staring fixedly at one end of the hall. She followed his gaze to see Gillecomigan standing with Gruoch; a priest was standing behind them in full robes. Gruoch's father was there as well as Prince Duncan and three human women in pink gowns that suspiciously had blonde, black and white hair. With a pang of sympathy for him, she realized what they were witnessing, the marriage of the hunter and Macbeth's Gruoch. She had known while they were allied that Gruoch had previously married Gillecomigan in accordance with her father's wishes. Not surprisingly, neither Macbeth nor Gruoch referred to it often.

"A happy beginning," she heard the blonde one say. She recognized the voice; it was indeed the Weird Sisters. Why were they here, what did they have to do with the wedding, were they just watching or did they have a part in what was happening here?

"Not all would agree," said the black haired one, glancing over toward a chair at the other end of the hallway where a dejected young Macbeth sat staring at the stone floor.

"Certainly not our hero," finished the white haired one.

"Why are we here?" asked Macbeth in a harsh tone, staring hard at the Weird Sisters in the corner and then at his younger self sitting in the chair.

"Because they," the stag lifted his head in the direction of the three Fey, "had a part in this, they influenced Gillecomigan to ask for Gruoch to be his mate and they influenced her sire to accept."

Macbeth's face revealed his shock, "Why?" his expression changed from shock to anger, "Why would they do this to my love, my Gruoch, and to me?"

"Because," the scene around them changed once again, and now they were in the main dining hall of Castle Moray. It was dark outside and the table looked as if a ravening horde had been through, bits and pieces of food littered the table and the floor around the table. Only Duncan standing by the fireplace and Gillecomigan sitting in one of the chairs next to the fire were still present. "They wanted you angry enough to kill Gillecomigan without giving him a chance to tell you who had sent him to kill your father," the great stag explained, "or to tell you who had asked that you also be killed."

"There is just one more bit of business that needs doing," Duncan said as he moved from the fireplace to sit in a chair across from Gillecomigan.

"And what would that be, my prince," the scar faced man responded.

Duncan put one booted foot on the table and leaned back in the chair, "To arrange an accident for my cousin Macbeth."

Gillecomigan finished his drink before responding, "Nay milord, Macbeth is and heir to the crown, and much beloved by the people." Duncan sat up straight at this staring angrily at him, "Besides, it might lead to some uncomfortable questions about his father's demise, and who demanded it."

Duncan rose, pointed an angry finger at Gillecomigan, "Think well before you defy me," he warned.

Gillecomigan sneered, "Think well before you risk my defiance, Prince Duncan."

The scene stilled and the stag spirit continued, "The Weird Sisters needed Duncan to remain alive, it was important to them that you not discover the truth of who was behind your father's murder until they chose to tell you."

Macbeth stood stiffly with his hands clenched into fists, "So they made Gruoch marry a man she did not want or love, and they made me hurt her by telling her I did not want her anymore because I could not ask her to go into exile with me."

Demona stared at him; she had not known the last and couldn't really imagine how he had managed to get Gruoch to believe him. She had often been envious of the two of them and their obvious love for one another, especially then when Goliath had been in his stone sleep for so many years and she had been alone. She couldn't imagine how much Macbeth must have hurt while watching Gruoch take another as mate. Actually yes she could, she thought, staring at the rug underneath her talons, all she had to do was think of Kendra with another to imagine his pain. She didn't see Macbeth turn and stare at her for a long moment, it was the spirit realm, one felt the emotions directed toward them.

The Ancient One did not respond, instead the scene around them changed and they were back at the room where Duncan had received Findlaech's medallion from Gillecomigan. Duncan was standing at the fireplace staring into it, the three Weird Sisters were present as well posing as there nursemaids holding the infant Canmore. There was a knock at the door and young Macbeth entered, "You summoned me milord?"

"Please cousin, enter," Duncan said, waving to the three Fey sisters for them to leave. "I'm in need of your council. I've learned the true identity of the mysterious Hunter." Duncan turned back to the fire, "It's terrible," he said lifting his arms in the air for emphasis, "shocking."

Demona heard Macbeth growl, she didn't blame him, it was a masterful performance and Duncan was setting up the young Macbeth to get rid of his problem.

"You know who killed my father?" the young Macbeth asked hopefully, approaching Duncan with his hand held out in supplication.

Duncan turned around to face his cousin, "It was…is…" he hesitated as if having difficulty uttering the next word, "Gillecomigan."

"What?" the young Macbeth recoiled.

"Och, he fooled me completely. The wrongs I've done you cousin," Duncan he held up his hands helplessly.

"At least you weren't lying about that part," Macbeth growled from where he stood near the Ancient One.

"Were it not for this blackguard," Duncan continued his acting, "you'd be high steward of Moray and have Gruoch for your own." He paused to let that sink in, "I dare not attack him openly. It could start a war between Moray and the rest of Scotland. All would suffer, what can be done?" he asked plaintively.

Demona could hear Macbeth grind his teeth at this; she could have probably heard it even in her human form.

"Leave that to me," the young Macbeth swore furiously while gripping his sword. "With your permission milord I will take my leave to return to Moray."

"Of course, cousin," was all Duncan needed to say to have the young Macbeth turning about and striding purposefully out the door. The young man never saw the satisfied smirk on Duncan's face as the prince stared after him.

Everything around them froze and Demona glanced over at Macbeth. He was still staring at Duncan, raw fury evident in his eyes. Their surroundings changed, now they were standing once again outside the cavern where Demona's small clan was located.

"The hunter will resurface tonight at Castle Moray. We offer you another opportunity," Demona heard one of the Weird Sister's say. She stepped closer to the opening so that she could look into the cavern, the three Fey were masquerading as old gargoyles once again.

The Demona of this time interrupted them, "to destroy my enemy!"

"To ally yourself with Macbeth of Clan Moray," the yellow haired one corrected her.

"Never, to ally with a human," Demona turned away, put her hands on the cavern wall. The Demona standing outside watching remembered her thoughts at this time, she had been thinking of the Captain of the Guard as she stared at the rock that formed their home. "Never again," the Demona inside the cavern said softly.

"The hunter is enemy to you both," argued the black haired ancient looking gargoyle.

"Together you can defeat him," added the white haired one.

"But separately," the yellow haired one started.

The Demona inside the cavern interrupted them, "I make no promises," she said turning to face them.

The words were sooner said than the world around them changed again and they were at Castle Moray watching the fight between the young Macbeth and Gillecomigan. Macbeth's anger almost cost him the fight before it had barely begun; only Gillecomigan toying with him allowed the young man to keep his life. On the other hand, perhaps it was the influence of the Weird Sisters making sure he lived, thought Demona, as she looked around in vain for any sign of them.

A gasp of dismay from below had the gargoyle looking back down, Gruoch had stepped out onto the parapet and Gillecomigan immediately grabbed her, using her as a shield and a threat to Macbeth, forcing the younger man to surrender his sword.

"But what is a Hunter without his prey," Gillecomigan boasted as he pulled on his hunter's mask. Demona looked above them toward the tower she remembered watching all this from. Yes, there she was with her mace swooping down to knock Macbeth out of the way of Gillecomigan's descending sword, blocking the blow meant for the human with her mace.

"Still laughing Hunter?" the Demona on the parapet asked Gillecomigan, "Come meet your doom."

The Hunter still had Gruoch hostage, "You want her, take her," he said sending the woman toward Demona. The gargoyle on the parapet caught the woman and then thrust her off to the side watching the Hunter who came rushing immediately after the human female with his sword upraised.

The Demona watching from above snarled in annoyance, "what is it with me and these battlements," she complained as she watched Gruoch barely stop herself from falling over the edge, only the young Macbeth's quick action saved the woman from falling to her death. Why she couldn't have been a bit gentler with the young woman, she thought with annoyance, watching herself. Then she remembered the sorcery the Magus had placed upon her, she altered her vision, there it was a black mass of magic influencing her emotions and actions, causing her to react rashly whenever she became angry.

The fight below between herself and the Hunter continued until she had him over the edge of the battlement. She ripped off the mask over his face, "Look closely creature, tis your handiwork," Gillecomigan accused the gargoyle that held him, "done when I was but a boy, remember?"

Demona stared at his face once again searching her memory just as the gargoyle that held him was doing, once again she came up blank, but then were many gaps in her memory of the time right after the massacre at Wyvern Castle and that would have been when she encountered a young Gillecomigan.

"No," said Demona from below, her voice carrying her conviction.

The Hunter glared at her, "You," he growled as he gripped the gargoyles arms and pulled her over with him.

Demona remembered what happened next, her surprise at seeing the young Macbeth leaning over the battlement, reaching down and holding onto her wrist to prevent her from falling. She remembered seeing the strain on his face, knowing that he was not strong enough to hold her for long especially with the Hunter holding onto her legs. She had felt Macbeth's grip give and in desperation had struck the Hunter with her tail as hard as she could. He had fallen, screaming the entire way until the sound ended abruptly. Macbeth had pulled her up back onto the parapet. She looked below, Gruoch was rushing into Macbeth's arms, and they embraced.

The Demona below placed a taloned hand on young Macbeth's shoulder, "Thank you."

Demona remembered saying that. It was one of the very few times she had ever said thank you to a human until Kendra.

"I owed you," Macbeth replied simply.

"Then we're even, good," Demona responded brusquely, before flying off.

The landscape changed again, and now they were in a small round room. Judging from the sunlight streaming in through the window it was late afternoon. Duncan was sitting in the casement of a narrow window watching something outside the room and holding his infant son. The three Weird Sisters, posing as human nursemaids, were present as well.

"There will always be a Hunter my son," Duncan said to the infant in his arms holding up the hunter's mask. He handed the boy over to one of the Weird Sisters. Duncan put on the mask, stared out the window, "And there will always be the hunted."

Duncan didn't see the three Fey turn and smile in satisfaction at one another, but Demona did. Acting on a hunch she looked for the tell tale green of fey magic, there was more present on Duncan than the last time she had looked for it, and to her appalled shock there were enchantments upon the baby in the black-haired Fey's arms. The child had been alive for only a few months and already they were manipulating him. She looked over at the great stag, the spirit's brown eyes met hers and his majestically antlered head dipped in silent acknowledgement.

The room disappeared and now they were standing upon a thin path winding up the edge of a steep cliff. Demona recognized it; they were very close to one of the many caverns her clan sheltered in during the day. "Their cousin's they should be friends," Macbeth's voice from further down the path drew Demona's attention. He was a few years older now she saw, the same age she judged as when they had become allies. He was walking with a much older looking Duncan who now had a golden crown upon his head.

"Yes, well…some cousin's are not that close," said Duncan staring at the land around him as he walked up the path, carefully gripping the rocks on the side of the path away from the sheer drop on the other side. Unexpectedly the stone beneath his feet cracked as the rock underneath him gave way, leaving him hanging on desperately to the remaining rock as he danged over a dangerous drop.

Macbeth threw himself forward grabbing at his cousin's hand just as Duncan's grip gave way.

"I should have let him fall," growled Macbeth from beside her, she glanced over at her former ally surprised that he was standing as close as he was; he had been keeping his distance from her since this first began. She turned her attention back to the scene in front of them in time to see the younger Macbeth pull Duncan to safety.

"Macbeth, you saved my life," Duncan said a surprised tone.

"I'm sure you would have done as much for me," Macbeth of this time assured him lightly.

Demona glanced over at the Macbeth standing beside her; she wasn't surprised when she saw the disgusted expression on his face.

"This dispels any doubts about your loyalty to me and to the crown," Duncan said with a pleased expression, but Macbeth wasn't paying attention to him, he was looking at something else. "What is it?" said Duncan, his expression changed to surprise, "Gargoyles?!"

Demona started down the path toward the cavern entrance; ahead of her, both men entered the cave. She got there in time to see the young Macbeth standing protectively in front of her stone form. Duncan had a large rock in his hands, obviously about to smash her. "My lord! I beg you spare them," Macbeth pleaded, "There was a time when human and gargoyle fought side by side, this one and I have a similar history."

Duncan dropped the rock he was holding, "As you wish, we owe you our life. We will grant you theirs, for your sake." He stepped closer to one of the gargoyles, a slender male, "We only hope that we do not come to regret your council," he said coolly staring at the stone form. He turned and strode quickly out of the cave, "I tire of this outing."

Demona took the opportunity to glance inside the cavern; she had a feeling that she remembered this day. Yes, this was the place she had woken with the Hunter smashing her clan, and now that she knew Duncan was the Hunter… "He came back later in the day as the Hunter, it was only the sun setting that prevented him and the humans with him from killing all of us."

"It was that event that prompted you to accept the Weird Sister's offer to bind you to Macbeth," the Ancient One said.

Demona turned around and looked up at the great stag, her eyes wide in realization, "Of course, they manipulated Duncan into being the Hunter, once he found my clan the Weird Sisters knew he would come back to kill us. I hadn't seriously considered the three old females proposal until this night when he and his soldiers attacked us. There were only three my clan left, I was desperate, no matter what I did to keep my clan safe, there seemed to always be another Hunter and I was becoming older and weaker and less able to protect them every year. I made the decision this night to seek out the three old gargoyles that keep visiting me to see if they could help what remained of my clan."

"We should follow them," Macbeth interrupted grimly, indicating the direction Duncan and his younger self had taken, "I'm about to meet the Weird Sisters for the first time."

Demona looked toward where Duncan and the younger Macbeth had gone; she frowned when she saw the two smaller forms with them. She hadn't realized that the two men had their son's with them; she hadn't seen the children earlier. There was a thick fog hanging just above the ground making it difficult to see the two men and their son's, but it kept clearing just enough for them to keep following them.

"Double, double, toil and trouble," they saw the three Weird Sisters, this time pretending to be there old human females, about the same time as the four they were following, "fire burn and cauldron bubble."

"This was real?" exclaimed Demona, surprised, she had just thought it was in that offensive and horribly inaccurate play that the humans liked so much.

Macbeth snarled, "That playwright didn't get it entirely correct, I still don't know how he knew about this. Duncan must have wrote it down somewhere, or young Canmore perhaps."

"All hail Duncan, King of Scotland, father of the king hereafter," the three old crones were greeting Duncan.

"All hail Macbeth, King of Scotland, father of the king hereafter," the three crones greeted the young Macbeth as he stopped beside Duncan and his young son Canmore.

The two men turned to look at one another, and Demona could see the confusion on the young Macbeth's face. Apparently so could Duncan, "You speak treason, old crone!" growled Duncan, as he took a few threatening steps toward the three Fey.

"You are but half right, good mothers," Macbeth said as he came forward to stand beside Duncan, "Duncan is the right and proper king."

"King now he is, but each of you shall in turn be king," said the white haired old woman.

Macbeth held up his hands, warding away their words, "I say thee nay, Weird Sisters."

The older Macbeth standing beside Demona watching made a surprised noise, "I don't remember saying that," he whispered, as if to himself.

The younger Macbeth was still attempting to explain things to the three old women, "Prince Canmore is destined to be king after Duncan."

"You would lecture us on fate?" said the white haired one just before the fog around them increased and the three Fey disappeared.

Young Macbeth, obviously desperate for his cousin to believe that he wanted no part of this, said, "My king, we must not take seriously the ravings of three old bedlams."

"You speak wisely, Macbeth. Its utter nonsense," replied Duncan turning away, "of no consequence," he finished, but Demona could see that neither of the two men believed that.

"And so they set Duncan and I at each other," said the older Macbeth in a grim tone as the scene around them froze, "Though in truth we had always been, though I didn't know it at the time." He turned toward the Irish Elk spirit, "Were they truly telling us the future? Do those three have the power to do that?"

Demona was already shaking her head. There were too many events where the Weird Sisters had already shown they were unaware of the future for them to be able to see into it as they had just claimed.

"Why do you believe they cannot…Demona," the stag hesitated a second before saying her name and the gargoyle knew the spirit had stopped himself from saying my chosen. Macbeth turned toward her, a thoughtful frown upon his face.

"They didn't know that the Magus would defeat them," she began listing off the events they had been unaware of, "they didn't know about Macbeth and I before the Archmage pointed us out to them, and they didn't know that they were the ones to give the Archmage the Eye of Odin, the Phoenix Gate and the Grimorum Arcanorum. Their pretending to be the three fates, and perhaps they have always been the three fates that humans speak of, but they are manipulating events to happen as they want and as they say. They aren't predicting the future and then sitting back and letting things occur without interference as they would be able to if they could truly see into the future."

"Their foretelling the future and then making sure it happens the way they said it would," growled Macbeth, staring at the place where the three Fey had been.

"You are both correct," replied the giant stag spirit, satisfied.


	18. Chapter 18

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 18**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: Actually, this is more notes this time. The seed of the idea for Luach to be Demona's friend came from Donald Flemings 'A Long Forgotten Secret' and 'A Dream Is A Wish The Heart Makes...'

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/01/08

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"Their foretelling the future and then making sure it happens the way they said it would," growled Macbeth, staring at the place where the three Fey had been.

"You are both correct," replied the giant stag spirit, satisfied.

The land around them rippled and reformed into the main hall of Castle Moray, it was night and Macbeth was standing by the fireplace pushing at the logs in it with a poker. Gruoch's father was just entering the room from the winding staircase. He came up to the fireplace and stood by Macbeth. "You have news for me, Bodhe?" the Macbeth asked.

"King Duncan's army moves against you," announced the old man.

"But why? I saved his life," protested Macbeth.

"He must have some reason to fear you," said Bodhe thoughtfully, stroking his beard.

Macbeth clenched his fist, "Well…If it's a fight he wants…"

"Be reasonable Macbeth," Bodhe cautioned him, "Your retainers are loyal, but no match for Duncan's forces. The clan will be at his mercy." The old man gripped the younger's shoulder, "But if you surrender now, Duncan might agree to spare my daughter and grandson."

As if cued, the two in question entered the room, Luach was bearing a bowl of fruit, which he placed on the table at the side of the room. His mother was bearing another, which she placed beside it. The boy wasted no time before grabbing an apple and biting into it.

"Perhaps your right," sighed Macbeth.

Gruoch approached the two men, "We thought to lighten your stern discourse with this sweet fare."

Macbeth walked up to her and drew her into his arms, "Always remember, I love you," he gravely told her.

"Husband, what is wrong?" she pulled away alarmed at both his tone and action.

He didn't respond, but knelt and held his arms open, inviting his son into them. The boy smiled happily and ran to hug his father, "Mind your mother always," Macbeth told his son. He ruffled the boy's hair affectionately and rose to his feet.

Gruoch grabbed his arm as he moved to leave, "Macbeth, tell me what is going on," she demanded, concerned.

Macbeth raised one hand to stroke her red hair, "Oh, it's nothing, I go to see my cousin, the King," he spoke reassuringly. "Gruoch, be of good cheer, hmm," he spoke with forced lightness as he hugged her once again. "The journey will be brief," he said with a touch of grimness that he couldn't hide and kissed her goodbye. He turned to leave and this time she did not stop him, but stared after him with a concerned visage.

"You suspected he would have you killed," Demona said to the man standing beside her.

"I was almost certain of it," Macbeth confirmed staring longingly at Gruoch and Luach as everything around them froze except for themselves.

Tentatively, Demona placed a taloned hand on his arm attracting his attention, "You always were an excellent mate and father to them."

"At least until I was no longer able to be a husband and father," he replied bitterly.

Demona lifted her hand away from his arm. She didn't know why he had decided to leave Gruoch and Luach after recovering from being killed by Canmore instead of staying with them. However, the likelihood that her decision to betray him to Canmore played a part in it was certain. She turned away from him to stare at Gruoch and Luach; she knew how much he had loved both of them. It had been so long, so many centuries since they had been alive, there was nothing she could do now to undo the decision she had made then no matter what she might wish now.

Macbeth looked over at the sky-blue gargoyle uncertainly as she stared at his wife and son. He turned to look at the spirit pleadingly; surely there was something else they should be watching right now. He didn't know quite what to do with this quieter, calmer and regretful Demona.

"There is one thing you should know before we leave this time," the great stag stated, "Your mate's father has been enchanted by the Weird Sisters. He speaks for them this night and on other nights to ensure that you follow the path they desire."

Macbeth turned and stared at the old man, "I had to leave to seek out Duncan. Otherwise I wouldn't have met Demona on this night to become allied with her clan," he realized.

Demona turned and looked at Bodhe as well, "We were both desperate this night," she said, "you because Duncan was moving against you, and me because Duncan was hunting my clan. Desperate enough to accept almost any bargain that gave us the hope of saving those we were sworn to protect," she met Macbeth's grey eyes, "desperate enough to accept when the Weird Sisters offered what appeared to be help."

The scene around them changed, it was dark and foggy and they stood on rocky ground with hills all around. He knew this place, had expected it after what they saw at Castle Moray and what they had discussed, this was where he and Demona were bound together.

"I need your help again," he heard his younger self say from nearby, it didn't take him long to spot his younger self pleading with a white haired Demona to join with him. He had forgotten how thin and old she had looked then. She had aged rapidly over the years since he had first seen her as a young man he realized with surprise, but then life had apparently not been easy for her or her clan.

"I beg you help me defend my clan," the younger Macbeth asked.

She turned shaking a fist, "And what about my clan?" she asked.

"Help me now and I swear to keep them forever safe," the younger Macbeth swore. Macbeth winced, he had forgotten that he had sworn so much for her aid, but he had been desperate. He knew what Duncan would do to him if he surrendered and he hadn't been ready to die. Also, he hadn't been entirely certain that Duncan would spare his son Luach.

The old gargoyle crossed her arms, "You sing an old song. How do I know you will keep your word," she asked doubtfully.

In a gust of wind that had both the young Macbeth and the old gargoyle looking around startled, the three Weird Sisters arrived.

"This is more than chance," the young Macbeth said wide-eyed.

The older Macbeth barked out a bitter laugh, "Oh lad, you don't know the half of it," he said to his younger self. He remembered that he had seen them in this time as the old women he had seen with Duncan. Now though, he saw them as they really were, three young women with slightly pointed ears. Curious, he turned toward Demona, "I saw them as three very old women then, did they appear that way to you?"

"No, they appeared as three old gargoyles to me," she responded absently, staring at the scene before them.

"What do you desire," the black haired Fey asked the old Demona.

Her fists clenched, the snowy-white haired gargoyle replied, "My youth restored, so that I may continue to lead my clan."

"And what would you be willing to trade, Macbeth of Moray," the blonde Phoebe asked.

Macbeth responded immediately, "Anything to save my family."

"The bones are cast, let us begin," said the white haired Luna with a satisfied look.

The Weird Sisters joined hands around the young Macbeth and Demona, forcing the two to stand almost back to back to fit in the center of their linked arms. "Across the mists of space and time, we propose this covenant sublime." The wind circled fiercely around them; the young Macbeth and the old Demona were now solidly back-to-back.

The three Sisters spoke again, "Macbeth his youth doth offer here, to make this one a force to fear." Young Macbeth and Demona began to rise up in the air, "While she, with fang and claw and wing, doth swear sweet death his foes to bring."

"I don't really remember this next part," Demona whispered to Macbeth.

"Neither do I," he whispered back just as quietly.

"By their acceptance are they consigned, unto each other's fate resigned, forever and eternal bound, and each the other's pain resound." The Weird Sisters finished, the two figures were hurled to the ground, Macbeth white haired and Demona restored to her youth. The Sisters moved to stand together, "The pact is made. Our work is done." They turned to leave, Luna added over her shoulder, "Make haste, the storm is coming."

Selene turned and created a small sphere in the palm of her hand, "And know this, when Duncan spoke Gillecomigan was quick to do his bidding." The sphere floated over to Macbeth who cautiously held out his hand for it, "Duncan ordered your father's murder."

"What?!" exclaimed the newly old Macbeth, trailing after the black haired Fey who disappeared into the mists before he could close the distance between them.

"So, they kept the knowledge from me until they felt it was time for me to kill Duncan and become the next King of Scotland," said Macbeth grimly, "thus fulfilling the first part of their supposed foretelling."

Demona drew in a deep breath, recalling what the Ancient One had said the night before, that she would not have betrayed Macbeth if not for the interference of the Weird Sisters, "That implies that they would also ensure that the other part of their prediction would take place as well," she said grimly. She met Macbeth's gaze for a long moment as they eyed each other warily. In a marked change from their interactions for the past nine centuries, it wasn't in wariness of each other.

Macbeth turned toward the great stag, "I believe I know where and when we are going next."

"Indeed," commented the Irish Elk in a deceptively mild tone as the world dissolved around them, "Then we will bypass the Weird Sister's presence at your coronation ceremony to watch the fulfillment of that portion of their prophecy," the stag said as they appeared in mid-air, "and proceed directly to this time."

Macbeth yelled in shock, and automatically Demona flared her wings and grabbed for Macbeth's arms only to realize belatedly that they were not falling. Immediately she released him and glared in annoyance at the giant stag spirit. The Ancient One only flicked his ears back and forth at her with an amused look in his great brown eyes. He lifted his head directing her attention off to the left.

Demona looked in the direction he indicated and saw herself gliding in the air. She followed her other self's logical flight path and saw below them Moray Castle, on the battlements stood a broad shouldered waiting figure that could only be Macbeth. "This is the night that I overheard what I thought was Macbeth preparing to betray me to the English," she realized.

"I wasn't going to," Macbeth said in an annoyed tone, "I was just making a point to Luach about listening to every advisor, even the ones who were saying something you didn't want to hear."

Demona stared at him searchingly, trying to decipher the truth of that night. All she saw was honesty in his grey eyes. "Bodhe!" Demona exclaimed angrily, turning back to look down at the castle and remembering the words the Ancient One had spoken just minutes ago about the old man being enchanted by the Weird Sisters. "He was the one who suggested you betray my clan just as he suggested you surrender to Duncan," she looked back at Macbeth, "He's the Weird Sisters voice in this, saying what they want us to hear when they want it heard, so that we would dance to their tune."

"This will have to be carefully planned," a familiar voice to the right of their position had them all turning to look in that direction.

"She has grown contented here," Phoebe commented.

"It will be difficult to persuade her to break the alliance," Selene said.

The Weird Sisters were all watching the castle and Demona turned that way to watch as well. She was just placing Macbeth back on his feet after twirling him around her in her exuberance at the battle she had just fought for him. Something in his manner had given her pause that night, caused her to wonder what business he needed to attend to that he was not inviting her as his primary advisor to attend with him.

"Yet break it she will, for have we not foretold their future," the coolly amused voice had Demona glaring over to see which one of the three had spoken, it was Luna, the white haired one.

"So you overheard old Bodhe suggesting that the Hunter would leave us alone if I forswore your clan," Macbeth said to her ignoring the Weird Sisters now floating in the air near their location.

Demona turned back to him, looked down at where he was staring at the Demona of this time who was clinging to the stones of the castle outside a large window. In that room, Macbeth was meeting with Bodhe and Luach.

"How could you believe that I would be so naive and foolish as to think that the Hunter would leave me alone if I broke my oath to protect your clan," Macbeth said angrily, turning toward her, "Bodhe didn't know that we were all but certain that the Hunter was actually young Canmore. We both knew that it was he that stole the hunters mask from you when you stopped him from trying to attack me as a boy." Macbeth stared at her, his eyes hard, "Canmore was using my alliance with you to get English aid, but that wasn't his real goal, his goal was my crown. I was fully aware that breaking our alliance would not only make me an oath breaker, but also far worse off tactically; I needed every man and gargoyle I could get to fight on my side. I was hardly going to do something that would cost me part of my forces."

Troubled by his words, she looked back towards the castle. Why had she jumped to the conclusion that Macbeth was going to betray her? "I think that despite the years that we fought together," she said hesitantly, "I still suspected that you might someday decide to save your own life and the lives of your clan by letting us be killed just like the Captain of the Guard at Castle Wyvern." She finally turned and faced him, "When you didn't disagree with him and when you didn't tell Luach that you weren't going to betray us, I thought you were seriously considering his words. I knew how much you listened to his advice over the years, and how often you followed it."

Macbeth looked disturbed by her words when she finished, but before he could respond one of the Weird Sisters drew their attention.

"This is unexpected," the blonde Fey sounded displeased.

"They must not meet," said Selene, frowning as she looked down toward the castle.

"Or all will be undone," finished Luna.

Curious, Demona turned her attention toward the castle as well, wondering what was occurring that disturbed the three. She saw herself flying high circles over the castle and remembered that she had thought for a long time about what she should do before finally deciding to go to Canmore to bargain for her clan's safety. She looked down at the castle and saw Luach on the battlements looking upward at the Demona of this time and trying to attract her attention. "I don't remember this," she said frowning, she was certain she would have remembered seeing Luach again that night.

"That is because you were never allowed to notice him," the Irish Elk announced in his deep, wise voice.

The three Fey began chanting a spell, "More forces thy king needs to be allied," Phoebe began, "So before the dawn thou hast far to ride;" Luna said next, "Thou hast no time this night to waste," Selene spoke, "So to thy horse thou must make haste," Luna finished unleashing the energy they had formed toward Luach below.

The young man stopped waving at the blue-skinned gargoyle flying in the sky above him and turned to go inside, presumably to go to the castle stables and then to get the allies his father requested.

"What was my son doing before they stopped him, why was he trying to get Demona's attention?" Macbeth asked the Ancient One.

"As he walked by the window, he thought he saw the glow of a female gargoyle's red eyes. Concerned that it was Demona that he had seen, and that she had heard what was said, he went looking for her to persuade her to talk to you," the great stag spirit replied. "He knew of her temper, and her habit of making rash decisions when angry, and was rightfully concerned about how she might interpret what was said."

Macbeth turned to glare at the Weird Sisters, "So they stopped him."

Demona was paying attention to the discussion between the Irish Elk and Macbeth but she was also watching herself still flying in high circles above the castle. Her eyes narrowed as she saw herself swerve and begin a downward glide. She looked down at the ground trying to see what had drawn her attention. Luach was leaving the castle with three soldiers, riding out obtain the reinforcements his father wanted and the Weird Sisters had enchanted him into immediately seeking.

"Our gargoyle thinks too much of him," Selene observed watching the Demona of this time who was swooping down to fly over the small group on the road leading out of the castle.

"If he had wings and a tail she would take him into her clan," Phoebe commented.

Demona turned to stare at her, frowning, why would the Fey say that? She didn't really remember much about Luach except that Macbeth and Gruoch had loved him very much and that he had been a very decent warrior.

"It must be undone otherwise she will not betray Moray," Selene warned. The three sisters turned to look at one another, silently conferring for a moment.

"Concerns for the young Prince's safety in the upcoming war," Phoebe began the spell, "Must weigh on your heart no more," continued Luna, "Thy past with the young Luach thou must forget," said Selene, "So to Canmore thee can go without regret," finished Luna.

Demona followed the path of the greenish fey energy to where the Demona of this time was gliding. As soon as the spell was finished she saw herself turn away from the road and head south toward where the Hunter and the English were camped.

"I don't understand," Demona whispered, "I don't remember anything about a past with Luach." She turned toward the great stag seeking an answer. She knew that all the enchantments on her had been broken, so why couldn't she remember something that would give her a clue as to what the Weird Sisters had been talking about.

"Memories are like clearings within a thicket," the great stag explained, "to get to the clearing there must be a path. You possess the memories, but you no longer possess the path to get to them. It has been nine hundred years since you remembered them; the path has been overgrown and lost."

"Over the centuries I wondered why you deserted not only me, but Luach and Gruoch as well," Macbeth said, "I had thought we were more than just allies after watching you with Luach when he was a boy and then later when you helped teach him how to fight." He shook his head, "It was one of the things that drove my bitterness and hatred. I couldn't understand how you could just turn your back on all of that as if it meant nothing."

"I…" Demona's voice trailed off, she could not remember anything about Luach as a boy much less teaching him how to fight. She turned toward the great stag, "Ancient One is there no way to remake the paths to those memories?"

"There is," the great stag answered as he swung his antlered head around to look at her.

She met his wise, brown eyes and abruptly there were memories. She was standing on the battlements of Castle Moray with Macbeth discussing where to find more gargoyles to increase the number of her clan. Young Luach came running to his father, grabbed him around his leg and looked up at her with a grin on his face. "Can you fly?" he asked.

His open friendliness and lack of fear disarmed her, "We glide," she corrected him.

He let go of his father and looked up at her hopefully, "Could you take me sometime!" he asked excitedly. She just stared at Macbeth's hatchling nonplussed, never had any human asked her to take them gliding.

She was standing in the great hall next to the fireplace, discussing the training of Macbeth's soldiers with him and how to change it so they and her clan could fight together more efficiently. She had just finished an apple and tossed the core into the fireplace, she was still hungry and had looked briefly at the bowl full of fruit on the table, but had decided to wait until she was finished speaking with Macbeth to get another. A light touch on her wing less than a minute later had her looking down; it was young Luach holding up an apple for her. She accepted it with quiet thanks, noticing the approving look Macbeth was bestowing on his son for his thoughtfulness.

Luach was still looking at her appraisingly; she looked down at him curiously. "You're pretty, I like your hair," he announced. She noticed Macbeth smirking out of the corner of her eye.

Before she could reply Grouch called for the boy, "Luach come here and leave your father and Demona to their discussion." To the gargoyle's surprise there seemed to be no anger or concern in her tone. She looked at Macbeth's wife; the woman was smiling in amusement.

She was standing next to a pell practicing with her mace; she could see Luach over to the side watching her intently. He was a little older now and had his short practice sword belted around his waist. She paused, looked over at the youngster watching her, "Would you like to practice with me?" she offered and watched as his face lit up with pleasure at the invitation.

More, many more memories followed those, of her continuing her training of the youngster, of him turning into a young man and then into a man over the years of her alliance with Macbeth. Always he had a ready smile for her, and never did he seem to think of her as being any different or any less than the humans at the castle. They had become friends, and she had come to care about him, perhaps even more than she cared about some of the members of her clan.

"Luach!" she cried, her eyes filled with tears and she fell to her knees in her grief; it had leapt upon her along with her memories. She rose to her feet, not noticing Macbeth's hand upon her shoulder, turned toward the direction Luach had gone.

The Ancient One stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "This is not real, you cannot go after him or yourself and stop what has happened," he said with gentle understanding.

Grief turned to rage and with a scream, she turned toward the only targets she had for her anger. She sprang across the distance that separated them and savagely attacked the Weird Sisters. They disappeared, tattering like mist as she slashed them with her talons. The landscape round them faded into the spirit realm, the shadowy land underneath her feet and the shadowy trees rising around them.

Demona sunk to her knees, her rage gone as swiftly as it had come, "Why?" she asked plaintively.

"If you had not left Moray and taken your clan with you Canmore would have not been able to kill Macbeth. Luach would have never become king, nor would he have been slain in turn by Canmore so that Canmore could become king after him," the Irish Elk answered.

A warm hand fell on her shoulder; she looked up to see that it was Macbeth looking down at her with a mixture of sorrow and anger. "So they destroyed my family, they destroyed Demona's clan all to make their prophecy come true."

"That and to fulfill the Archmage's instructions for you," responded the majestic stag spirit grimly.

"Bitterness, hatred, and enmity for one another," Macbeth said grimly, "Well they certainly achieved that."

"I'm sorry," said Demona quietly as she rose to her feet, the restoration of her memories of Luach and the knowledge that her actions had led to his death made her feel as if someone had torn out her heart. He hadn't been clan, but he had been the human she had felt closest to until Kendra.

Macbeth regarded her indecisively, "For what?" he finally asked.

"For deciding that you were going to betray me, for going to Canmore," Demona said, her voice filled to the brim with her regret, "for the loss of your family."

Macbeth sighed, his expression softened as he regarded her, "And yet you didn't leave for Canmore's camp until after the Weird Sisters made you forget about Luach," he observed, "so neither of us knows what you would have done without their interference."

Demona stared at him, "I…," the flame-haired gargoyle hesitated, not wanting to lie about this. She searched her newly relocated memories and feelings, trying to determine what course of action she would have taken so long ago. "I would have spoken to Luach," she was finally able to say decisively, "I would have been worried about his safety."

"And he would have insisted that you talk to me," Macbeth followed unhesitatingly on her words, "And I would have explained that I was not planning on breaking our alliance and the reasons why."

She met his grey eyes, "And I would have eventually killed Canmore."

"And that they could not allow," cut in the Ancient One grimly, causing both Demona and Macbeth to turn and look at him.

Demona stared at the spirit for a long moment lost in her thoughts, "That does not ease the burden of guilt I feel," she admitted, "I cared for Luach, he was human, but he was my friend, to know that my going to Canmore lead to his death is a bitter thing to accept."

The great stag shook his antlered head, "Do not accept what is rightfully the Weird Sister's burden of guilt in these events," the spirit advised her. "Normally you would indeed be responsible for your own decisions and actions. At this time and place, however, you were not in control of decisions, nor fully in control of your actions resulting from them. Had you deviated in the slightest bit from what they had planned they would have simply tightened their control over you."

Demona flinched, she understood what the Ancient One was leaving unsaid, there were plenty other times and places when she had been in full or at least partial control of her own actions and decisions.

"Did you not count me as a friend as well?" Macbeth unhappily asked her.

Demona glanced over at him, "Yes, you were a friend as well as an ally Macbeth, but Luach and I had a different relationship than you and I did."

Her old ally nodded understandingly, "He treated you like an older sister or perhaps an aunt I think."

"I did feel like a clan elder to him," Demona admitted, "though I would have vehemently denied it at the time."

The Ancient One interrupted before they could reminisce more, "It is time for both of you to leave this place, staying here for too long is tiring for the physical body." The great stag turned his massive head to look at Macbeth, "The remaining enchantments upon you have been dispelled. There are also several days worth of memories that the Weird Sisters blocked that have been restored to you; you will remember them once you waken from this dream."

"What?" said Macbeth, startled, he stared at the great stag spirit for a moment, "That two week period that I lost after fighting with Demona after her broadcast, I ended up in Paris with no memory of what I had been doing. Shortly after that I met Dominique Destine for the first time," he glanced frowningly toward Demona.

The flame haired gargoyle was once again embarrassed at the mention of the incident, "I am sorry for that, I regret now ever going along with Thailog's plan. Of course now I suspect he actually planned all along for us to kill one another and for him to end up in control of both of our fortunes," Demona growled.

Macbeth's grey eyes widened, "He gave me that weapon."

The gargoyle's eyes flashed red, "That settles it then, he wanted us to permanently kill one another so he would end up with your and my money and sole ownership of Nightstone. He must have intended it all along when he first began suggesting the plan to me."

"Well," he said slyly, "Thanks to Detective Maza killing you, he didn't succeed."

Demona looked as if she had tasted something bitter, "I'm well aware of that, Macbeth. Don't worry, I no longer have any interest in Elisa Maza." The bitter look faded as she commented with dry amusement, "I hope she enjoys dealing with Goliath's arrogance and thick-headiness, and that they have a long life together. They seem well suited to one another."

Macbeth stared at the blue-skinned gargoyle in astonishment. He knew that the two didn't like one another, and suspected it had everything to do with who was and who was not currently with Goliath. But he had never expected Demona to decide that she didn't care anymore that Goliath was one, with another woman, and two, that woman was human.

"I am sorry that I must interrupt this," the great stag broke in, "But there is little time left for you to safely remain here and I have more to discuss with you." As soon as Demona and Macbeth turned their attention to him, the spirit continued, "Macbeth, you are no longer bound to Demona in any manner. However, you are not protected from the Fey enchanting you in the future. You should be wary of accepting offers of aid from them and be diligent against attempts to enchant you against your will. Wearing a charm made of iron will aid in this. I believe you have within your possession a book that describes such a charm."

Macbeth gave a short bark of bitter laughter, "Oh, you don't have to worry about me ever doing that again, I thank you for the warning though. As for the charm," he paused looking thoughtful, "I do believe I have come across a picture of such a charm. I'll make one for myself as soon as possible." He glanced over at Demona, "I don't want them doing to me what they did to my son and Demona." He hesitated just a second before continuing, "That reminds me, what about you? Do I need to make one up for you as well?" he asked the gargoyle.

Demona looked at him in surprise; the level of animosity between them had steadily decreased as they observed past events and understood more of how the Weird Sisters had manipulated them. It had especially decreased once they had learned that the three Fey had to block her memories of her friendship with Macbeth's son before she would betray her alliance with Macbeth, but she was still shocked that he would offer.

"She does not," the great stag spoke before Demona could find her wits enough to respond, "I have arranged for her to find a suitable charm before she leaves my lands."

Demona turned toward the Ancient One, surprised at this news until she remembered the bogus amulet Kendra and she were going to make with Rachael. That must be what the spirit was referring to because as a chosen she wouldn't need a protective charm.

"Very well then," Macbeth said, he hesitated for a long moment before glancing over at Demona uncertainly, "perhaps we can get together sometime," he offered quietly. "It would be nice to talk with someone that remembers Gruoch and Luach."

She looked searchingly into his grey eyes; they held wistfulness that to her surprise she found herself sharing. She nodded, "I think I would like that as well," she allowed. So much for living completely separate lives, she thought to herself wryly amused at her thoughts of only a few days ago.

Macbeth's shadowy form wavered and disappeared, she turned to the Ancient One. "I'm assuming the charm you referred to is the false amulet we are making?" she asked.

"Yes, it seems as if it could fill multiple purposes. Perhaps another should be made for the young Jaguar since it seems as if she wishes to learn how to fly with you," the great stag suggested.

Demona looked up at him, her eyes narrowed in thought, as she tried to figure out why he had made the suggestion. "If anyone from Goliath's clan sees her flying with me they will insist on meeting the new gargoyle they don't recognize, and they will probably insist quite forcefully," she decided ruefully. "They'll assume I'm corrupting her and will be intent on saving the new gargoyle from me. They won't give up until they realize who it is, and then they will need a suitable reason for how Kendra can transform into a gargoyle. The amulet will give them an explanation that they will accept without searching any further."

The Ancient One dipped his head in agreement, "That was my thought as well." He turned and began walking towards where Kendra and the two spirits were working on the winged were-jaguar form. "Tomorrow night we will study life and nature magic further, beginning with the very basic of lessons, how to use life magic to heal and how to use nature magic to create light."

The flame-haired gargoyle whipped her head around to stare at him, "Heal?" she repeated in disbelief. Light wasn't that difficult to create using sorcery, it was just that the cost usually wasn't worth using sorcery instead of a candle. Healing, however, was very difficult and had a very high cost associated with it and the Ancient One was calling it a basic lesson in life magic? The great stag's ear flickered toward her, "you will need to study to become proficient at it, but the method is simple," he assured her. She just continued staring at him.

"Demona," Kendra's voice had the gargoyle reluctantly dragging her attention away from the spirit striding serenely beside her. She looked at her lover, noticing that only the Eagle Owl spirit remained with her. "What do you think?" Kendra asked, indicating the winged form next to her.

The broad wings were glossy black and feathered, was the first thing Demona noticed. The second was that the face of the figure had changed slightly, the muzzle was even less pronounced than before. "I like the wings," she said as she walked toward the figure to examine the face more closely. "You've changed the face, why?" she asked turning toward Kendra.

"Jaguar pointed out to me that I wouldn't be biting much of anything unless I made the muzzle more pronounced, so I should either go more that way or just go with a more human appearance," the black haired woman explained.

Demona nodded as she reached out to stroke the glossy black feathered wings, as she had expected they were not particularly soft, but they were very smooth to the touch. "Perhaps we can do a beginners gliding class tomorrow," she suggested softly. "You will need to build up your muscles and skills for it, so we shouldn't do much more than thirty minutes of training to start off anyway."

Kendra responded with a pleased smile, "That sounds like a plan. I need to make sure I got all the attachments and underlying musculature in the correct places anyway and that there are enough of both to adequately support the wing structure." She reached out and touched the winged were-jaguar; it wavered for a second and then disappeared into her.

Demona asked curiously, "Did you create any others?"

"Um hmm," Kendra responded absently as she stretched, "one with the membrane type wings like yours." She gave Demona a searching stare, "You look tired," she noted, "and I know I'm tired, so let's get going?"

The gargoyle nodded, "I am tired and we still have to reheat the stew before we can eat again." She turned toward the Irish Elk spirit, "Thank you…" more words were beyond her fatigued mind so she looked into his brown eyes and hoped that he would understand. Though it had been hard to go back thru the events they had tonight, it was worth it for the understanding and for the memories of Luach she had gained even with the grief they brought with them.

The Ancient One took one stride towards her, easily covering the intervening distance with his long legs and dipped his head. Without hesitation, she leaned against his broad muzzle and rested her head against his for a few moments, taking in the solace and comfort he offered. When Demona straightened, he lifted his head enough to ruffle her fiery hair with a well-placed exhale. She smiled as the spirit realm and he faded away and turned to face the worried blue eyes of her lover.


	19. Chapter 19

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 19**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/09/08

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The Ancient One took one stride towards her, easily covering the intervening distance with his long legs and dipped his head. Without hesitation, she leaned against his broad muzzle and rested her head against his for a few moments, taking in the solace and comfort he offered. When Demona straightened, he lifted his head enough to ruffle her fiery hair with a well-placed exhale. She smiled as the spirit realm and he faded away and turned to face the worried blue eyes of her lover.

"Hey," Kendra said softly, reaching up to run her fingers through the gargoyle's red hair, "How about you stay in here while I go reheat the stew."

"It's alright, I want to get up and move around some anyway," Demona reassured her, "I just found out about another rather significant number of memories that the Weird Sisters blocked."

Kendra drew in a startled breath, "Again?" she said in disgust. Then more gently she asked, "What were they about?"

Demona sighed, "Let's start heating the stew and I'll tell you about what I learned tonight," she said, zipping open the side of the sleeping bag so she could slip out. They had warmed the stew, taken it back into the tent with them and finished it before the flame haired gargoyle finished relating the condensed version of everything she had learned tonight.

"He sounds like a real charmer, I bet he had plenty of young women sighing over him when he grew up," Kendra said, speaking of Luach.

Demona thought back, she smirked, "He did, they got quite annoying at weapons practice trying to attract his attention."

Kendra chuckled, "Oh I can guess." She smiled thoughtfully, thinking back to those overheard conversations of her high school days by the girls watching the basketball players, "Ohh," she fluttered her eyes, "Isn't he just the dreamiest hunk you've ever seen, look at how hard he can hit the pell. I'm sure he could singlehandedly defeat any one foolish enough to attack the castle," she cooed.

The gargoyle stared at her wide eyed, and then she started laughing.

The black-haired woman made a disgusted face, "Bimbettes strike in the medieval ages, I gather I'm pretty close to what actually happened."

Demona nodded, still chuckling, "I used to have to growl at them to get them to go away, Luach tried, but their antics were distracting to even me with all their sighing and chattering." She smiled softly obviously remembering the past. It faltered as sorrow flashed in her green eyes and she clenched her hands. "I don't understand why this is bothering me so, Luach has been dead for a very long time and it wasn't as if I didn't know about his death."

Kendra regarded her thoughtfully, "Yes, but you haven't been aware that your friend died on the same day for very long at all," she said, her voice filled with compassion.

Demona stared into Kendra's blue eyes, struck by her words, "No…I guess I haven't, have I?" she said softly. Finally, she surrendered, stopped fighting against the grief she felt, she lowered her head and permitted the tears to come as Kendra's arms wrapped around her. She allowed herself to be pulled close, let herself lean against her lover's strong body, and rest her head upon Kendra's shoulder.

When Kendra awoke in the morning, she was surprised that Demona was still in the sleeping bag with her. On every other morning, the gargoyle had risen with the sun to transform into Dominique. She reached out to touch the gargoyle's shoulder and when her hand met stone instead of soft flesh, she jerked upright in startlement. It took a half second for her mind to realize what must have happened. Demona had woken at sunrise, but instead of getting up to transform she had gone back to sleep and turned into stone.

In the dim light that filtered into the tent, she leaned over and looked at the gargoyle's sleeping face. The stone obscured some of the finer details of Demona's expression, but she could still see weariness and grief upon her lover's face. "It's no wonder you just turned over this morning and went back to sleep," Kendra said softly reaching up to trail her fingers gently over Demona's stone features, "these past few days have been hard on you haven't they," she said sadly.

"I guess I'll be making breakfast for just myself then," Kendra commented to herself, staring at the gargoyle's stone form. Something was nagging at her memory, something to do with stone sleep and…sunlight. The discussion about the mutates and Sevarius's comment about sunlight being absorbed by the gargoyles during the day as a source of energy came back to her. She nibbled on her lower lip as she considered this, if she were careful enough while moving Demona it certainly couldn't hurt her to be out in the sunlight instead of in the tent.

With the help of the tarp, ten minutes later Kendra had carefully slid the sleeping bag with Demona in it out of the tent and into a patch of morning sunshine. She looked up at the slivers of clear blue sky she could see through the deep green pine branches, thankful that it looked as if it were going to be a clear sunny day. "I'll have to chase around the sunny spots, but that shouldn't be too hard now that you're out here," she said as she fully unzipped the sleeping bag and opened it, exposing the gargoyle in her stone sleep fully to the light. With a fond smile, she reached down and touched one spiky lock of hair, marveling at how the silky mane had transformed into this unyielding stone.

Mid-afternoon, as Kendra was washing the dishes she had used for breakfast and lunch in the stream, she paused and looked north. A faint sound came to her ears; she cocked her head to the side and listened for a few seconds before turning to the dishes and hurrying her cleaning of them. There was a plane somewhere in the north, and from the sound it was getting closer. She ran for the camp, there were a few things she needed to cover less their reflective surfaces catch someone's eye.

The plane never flew close enough to worry about it spotting the camp. Kendra suspected though that it was only a matter of time before they flew over their location because from what she had heard the plane was flying a search pattern. She stared at the empty fire pit with its newly stacked supply of deadfall; it wasn't likely they could risk lighting it any time soon. It would probably be a few dark and cold nights for them.

Several hours later, Kendra watched both the stone form of her lover and the darkening sky above waiting for sunset to… Actually, she wasn't certain what would occur at sunset, only that something would happen that would change Demona back into living breathing flesh instead of inanimate looking stone. The slightest sound of stone cracking had Kendra's gaze focused on her lovers form. Hairline cracks rapidly widened and then Demona literally burst out of what now looked like a thin stone covering with a roar and reddened eyes.

The red glow faded quickly as Demona took in her location, her reclined position, "I feel asleep again," she realized.

Kendra knelt beside her, careful of her wings, "That's my guess; I pulled you out here just in case you did need sunlight." As Demona rolled to her feet, the black-haired woman rose with her. Kendra studied her lovers face and was pleased to see that the flame-haired gargoyle looked relaxed and rested. "You look like a day in stone sleep did you some good," she observed as she reached up and ran her fingers through Demona's wild mane of red hair.

Demona took stock of how she felt, Kendra was right she did feel better. She felt completely rested, and less stressed than she had in days. When she thought of Luach it still hurt, but it was not the sharp pain it had been last night. "I do feel better," she said surprised.

Kendra's lips twitched and her sapphire eyes danced with laugher, "So…" she drawled, "I guess that means that sometimes you just need to sleep like a rock?" she said with a snicker.

The flame-haired gargoyle mock glared at her, "Ha ha," Demona said, "I bet you think your very funny don't you."

The black-haired woman put a thoughtful finger up to her lips, "Hmm," she commented making a production of giving the question serious thought. "Why yes, yes I do," she nodded decisively after a few seconds, smirking at the gargoyle.

Demona shook her head, a smile curving her lips, "Come here," she requested huskily.

Kendra took a step closer, standing just a few inches from Demona, "Here?" she asked with a teasing smile.

"Not quite," said the flame haired gargoyle, as she placed her hands on Kendra's waist and pulled her closer. "Here," she whispered as she wrapped her wings around them both.

Kendra half closed her eyes as she felt Demona's wings wrap around her, it felt so good to be held by her lover like this warm, sheltered, surrounded. "Mmm," she murmured, "you're right, here is better." Demona's lips met hers and she fell silent, occupied with a much more interesting activity than talking. It was all Kendra could do to keep her hands on the gargoyles trim waist, as their lips met, touched, and teased. She wanted to explore the slim, muscular back and she especially wanted to see exactly how Demona would react to having her wing joints caressed. However, they had things to do tonight that couldn't be delayed for an hour or two no matter how much she wanted to, and there was a pot of soup on the stove cooking. Reluctantly she pulled away enough to murmur, "Dinner's on the stove, I need to check it, and unfortunately…really, really, unfortunately," she grumbled, "we have things to do and places to go tonight."

Demona allowed her lover to pull away, she was hungry and…her eyes lit up as she remembered what they had planned to do tonight before going to the spirit realm. "Flying, you're trying your winged form tonight."

"Yep," Kendra said as she stepped out of Demona's winged embrace, "time for me to actually try transforming into a were-jaguar for the first time." She turned toward the stove, missing the startled look on the gargoyle's face.

"I hadn't realized you haven't tried that transformation yet," Demona said, concerned.

Kendra lifted the lid and stirred the stew inside; she glanced over, catching the worried look on her lover's face. "No worries," she said lightly, "I'm not concerned about the transformation itself, I'm more concerned that I don't have the wings quite right."

Demona looked over at her searchingly; Kendra met her eyes with reassuring confidence. "Well then, I guess I'd better start going over a few things before we make the attempt." The flame-haired gargoyle began, "Gargoyles are gliders; we don't have enough muscular strength in our wings to provide the downward force to fly as birds do for any appreciable distance. There are two main ways to get airborne and to remain airborne, if there is enough air current or wind you simply adjusting the angle of your wings so you have lift on the underside of the wing as you glide into the wind, the second way is to find rising air currents to provide lift. There are three sources of lift, slope lift where the air currents flowing along the ground rise to go over an obstruction such as a steep hill, thermal lift where heated air rises faster than the cooler air around it, and lastly there is mountain wave lift which I'll leave till last since it's frequently hard to find."

Kendra listened closely as she served the stew. In between mouthfuls, Demona described how to pay attention to wind direction and scan the ground below for terrain and objects that might cause the air currents to rise as they passed over it. The gargoyle described how to look for the cauliflower shaped cumulous clouds that often marked the location of thermal lifts and lastly she discussed wave lift. Mountain wave lift occurred when air currents literally bounced along the ground after descending swiftly on the leeward side of a mountain. The trick with them was to catch the upward bounce and avoid the downdraft in the trough of the air current wave.

"This isn't the most ideal time or place to learn how to glide," Demona said frowning at the snow on the ground. "Ideally, we would start off a wall or cliff facing into the wind and with lots of open ground in front. We're lacking either of those in this area, and its winter so I doubt we will find any handy thermal lifts." She trailed off thinking, "It's usually windy down by the stream that might work, especially if we can find something to give you some height."

Kendra was surprised; she hadn't thought it would be as hard as Demona was indicating. After all, the gargoyle hadn't had any issues with getting airborne during their hike down from the plane crash site. "You didn't seem to have any troubles getting airborne on our trip down here, will it really be that hard?" she asked.

Demona smirked, "Oh, you'll be surprised at how little lift you need to get and stay airborne after you've learned how to glide. That's after you know what you're doing though, for your first attempts you will need some help."

The black-haired woman's face cleared, "Ok, so clean up the dishes and store the stew and then down to the stream?"

The flame-haired gargoyle nodded absently, "That sounds good." Her mind wasn't on the dishes, it was on their trip down here, searching for a good place for them to practice, "Didn't we pass some cliffs on the east side of the stream just before we stopped here?"

Kendra's eyes went unfocused as she recalled their trip here, "I think so, maybe half a mile north?"

The location identified for the nights gliding practice, the two hurried to finish dinner and tidy up the camp before they started north to find the rocky cliffs they remembered passing a few days ago.

The night was now very dark, the sun had fully set and the new moon had been last night. Tonight, only the merest sliver of it shown in the sky and it barely brightened the darkness of the night. They picked their way carefully through the pine forest headed for the stream. Demona looked over curiously at Kendra, most humans would have problems seeing tonight, but she didn't seem to. "Can you see? It's very dark out tonight."

"It's a bit dark, but I can see well enough," Kendra answered glancing over at the blue gargoyle, "I haven't had any problems seeing in the dark since my first transformation."

Demona's memory flashed back to that night when Kendra had been talking to Detective Maza, the moment when the car lights had reflected off her eyes, reflected greenly instead of red like a human's eyes. "Your eyes reflect light greenly, like a cat's eyes or a gargoyle's," she remarked surprised that she hadn't remembered that until now.

Kendra nodded, "It's usually only on the nights immediately before, during and following the full moon. Otherwise, unless I'm concentrating on it, they're just like any other humans. Tonight I'm concentrating on it," she said with a small grin indicating the inky black darkness of the forest.

They stepped out of the forest into the open area bordering the stream; it was a little lighter here. The stream was a darker ribbon in the center, as usual the wind picked up slightly near the cooler water. "Good there is a better breeze here," Demona commented, "I'll scout ahead and find the cliffs we saw, see if they will work for tonight." She extended her wings, "Now is as good a time as any to watch my wings and see how I do this, pay attention to the angle of my wing compared to the air currents."

The black-haired woman watched as the gargoyle climbed up a nearby tree and then launched herself from it. She noted how the gargoyle's wings cupped the air as they moved down in a powerful sweep and then rotated back and around, always maintaining a twenty to thirty degree angle against the wind. Only two strokes were needed for Demona to gain the height she wanted, and then the gargoyle started gliding north her wing at ten to fifteen degree angle to the wind. Kendra started running north along the stream, splitting her attention between watching the ground for obstacles and the gargoyle in the air drawing further away from her.

The gargoyle was almost out of sight when Kendra saw her winged form start circling. She picked up her pace guessing that Demona had found the cliffs. As she drew closer, the flame-haired gargoyle landed waiting for her, now she could see the rocky cliff they had passed just over four days ago. She judged the shear rough limestone cliff to be around forty foot tall.

"This is almost perfect," Demona said as Kendra jogged up, "You will have to angle so that you fly up the stream, but there's defiantly enough of a lift at the top of the cliff for this to work." The gargoyle eyed the windproof outer jacket and pants and fleece her lover was wearing, "I guess you'll have to go without clothes until we get home and I can make you something."

Kendra nodded, "Yea, I knew I would when I made the form larger." She smiled at the flame-haired gargoyle, "I'm glad you're offering to make something for me, I barely know enough to thread the needle and mend holes."

Demona smirked, "Somehow that doesn't surprise me," she commented. The gargoyle turned her attention back to the cliff, "Now seems as good a time as any to see if your claws are sharp enough to dig into stone." She turned back to Kendra, "If they're not then they will need to be, there's too many places in the city that you will need to climb up the side of a building to get enough airspace to get airborne."

Kendra looked first at the stone of the cliff and then down at her hands considering, "I don't know, I didn't think about it." She started unzipping the windbreaker, "I guess we will have to see if I can won't we."

The gargoyle didn't miss how Kendra was staring at the cliff as she undressed almost as if it were a foe to be overcome. As more and more of her lover was bared to the night air, Demona watched the muscles flex underneath the dusky skin of Kendra's arms and shoulders, the tensing of the quadriceps in her thighs, and the play of muscles in her back. The flame-haired gargoyle sighed; she wanted to touch her lover so badly she ached with it. As much as she wanted to make love to Kendra however, she also wanted to see how her lover looked in the winged were-jaguar form. So she stood still, clenched her taloned hands at her side and counseled herself to patience, there was always later tonight and tomorrow. Besides out here in the cold was definitely not the place to start anything.

Kendra hung the last of her clothing over a convenient limb of a small scrubby looking pine at the base of the cliff. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, calling up the image of the form she wanted. Both were humanoid so it was easy to imagine her human form inside the form of the were-jaguar. She felt her form begin to shift. Her legs and feet shifted toward the cat end of the spectrum, her knee joint shifted forward as her heel rose to form a hock joint and the balls of her feet and toes changing into paws. From her back, the feathered wings erupted at the same time as her skin darkened and fur grew out. Lastly she felt her face and head change shape. She opened her eyes, the world was slightly brighter than it had been before, the slitted cat-like pupil of this form's eye was simply better suited to gathering and focusing what little light there was than a human eye, no matter how enhanced.

She looked down upon herself, one of the first things she couldn't help but notice was that this form was relatively flat chested compared to her human form. Still it made sense, since this form was a mixture of jaguar and human characteristics. Her pelt was intentionally fully as thick as that on her jaguar form, knowing that she was going to be flying in all types of weather she had thought it best to have as much protection from the elements as possible. She bent one wing around staring at its structure and the glossy black feathers that covered it in satisfaction; she flexed the three wing claws, both together and separately, marveling at having a second set of fingers. A flick of the tail, yes it was there. A flicker of ears, yes they were there as well. She examined her hands, and extended her claws and then relaxed them so that they withdrew back into their sheaths. "I think I'm ready," she announced looking up at Demona.

The gargoyle was staring at her, and Kendra had no trouble deciphering the aroused look in her lover's green eyes. Discontentedly, she wondered if Demona found this form more attractive, after all she now looked more like a gargoyle. She took a quick inventory of her emotions, was she even interested in sex in this form? She hadn't really considered the idea before; she was used to not having any sexual feelings as a cat except for a short period during the summer when her jaguar form came into season. To her surprise, she realized there was a slight sexual interest, enough to find Demona's stare interesting, but she wasn't certain if she could get aroused enough to allow her gratification.

"Kendra?" Demona's concerned voice drew Kendra out of her frowning introspection.

"I guess you like this form then," Kendra responded with forced lightness, she was surprised when her wings twitched and caped around her responding automatically to her unease.

They weren't very good at hiding their uncertainties from each other were they, Demona mused, of course, perhaps that was a good thing. "Kendra I was staring at you before you changed, watching you disrobe it was all I could do not to reach out and touch you," she said, meeting the blue-eyed gaze with complete honesty.

The were-jaguar was surprised, "You were?" She stared searchingly into the gargoyle's green eyes, remembering their passionate kisses back in the camp just before dinner. She did know that Demona found her human form attractive, but that didn't mean that the gargoyle didn't find this form slightly more attractive.

"Yes I was. Am I wrong in thinking that you find both my gargoyle and human forms attractive in different ways?" Demona inquired.

Kendra shook her head, "No, you aren't. I find you very attractive in either form."

"Then why does it surprise you that I find both your human and this new form equally attractive?" the gargoyle asked softly, emphasizing the equally.

Kendra dipped her head, breaking the eye contact between them briefly before lifting her head and seeking out the gargoyle's green eyes once again. "I just thought it might be easier for you to find this form attractive because I look more like what your used to, more gargoyle like."

"Do you find my human form more attractive than this," Demona indicated herself. "Is that why we make love more often when I'm human?" She knew that wasn't the case, after all, it hadn't been her human form that Kendra had been fantasizing about in the cave that first night.

"No!" protested Kendra immediately. "That's only because we are in the spirit realm every night and then tired afterward. We've been making love during the day because that's the only time were both rested and have the time. Trust me, I find you just as attractive now as when you're human," red color bloomed on Kendra's cheeks, "actually, maybe a little more," she admitted, "the differences between us when you're a gargoyle intrigue me."

Demona smirked, her suspicions confirmed, "And you don't think I'm finding the differences between us just as intriguing? Yes, you are a very beautiful and attractive were-jaguar, but you're no less beautiful and attractive to me as a human. And I find the differences between us intriguing as well."

A pleased smile formed on Kendra's face as Demona's sincere tone registered. It faltered however as she grimaced, "That does bring up a complication."

Demona frowned, "complication?" she repeated questioningly.

Kendra shifted from foot to foot uneasily as she explained, "The jaguar doesn't normally feel any sexual desire except for a few days during the summer."

The flame-haired gargoyle stared at the woman before her in dismay, "You mean you don't feel anything for me right now?" a frown formed on her face that just didn't seem right. Demona looked into the feline looking face; into the sapphire blue eyes with their cat-like pupils so noticeable framed as they were by the midnight black of Kendra's fur. She knew she wasn't imagining the affection and warmth in Kendra's eyes.

"No, no," Kendra hurried to explain, "My emotions for you haven't changed any; it's just that I don't feel as aroused as I would if I were human. I mean, I'm more interested right now as a were-jaguar than I would be as a full jaguar, but still not nearly as much as if I were human."

Demona stared at her lover, took in the taller, more muscular form, the deep blackness of her fur, the glossy darkness of her wings. She cloaked her wings behind her and stepped up to Kendra, slipping her arms inside the feathered wings and around her lover's waist. As Demona had hoped, Kendra immediately uncapped her wings from about herself to wrap them around the gargoyle. "Are you sure?" the flame-haired gargoyle asked, staring into her lover's face. She hoped that Kendra wasn't certain, because the feathered wings now wrapped around her felt just as good as she had thought they would.

Kendra stared musingly down into the beautiful face of her lover, was she certain? She closed the short distance between them and pressed her lips against Demona's dark red ones. Their lips brushed and pressed against each other. Kendra felt the first tentative touch of her lover's tongue as the gargoyle sought to deepen the kiss and opened her lips allowing it entry as she tightened her wings around Demona's body. The gargoyles hands moved up her back and began gently stroking along her wing joints. It certainly wasn't unpleasant, like any joint, where her wings joined her back the skin was slightly more sensitive just as the bend of her elbows or knees were more sensitive. However, she suspected she wasn't as sensitive as Demona was there given how the gargoyle had warned her away from the area the night before. Kendra could sense that Demona was getting more and more aroused as they continued kissing, however, as she had suspected it would, her own arousal level had already plateaued.

With a frustrated groan, Demona pulled away from Kendra's lips, she could sense that her lover wasn't reacting as she had hoped. She looked up into the blue eyes, saw the regret and worry there, "So sometime in the summer," the gargoyle forced herself to say lightly, pushing down the disappointment she felt.

"I'm sorry that I didn't consider this earlier," Kendra apologized. "I didn't think beyond the fact that I would like to wrap my wings around you and glide with you," she said guiltily, "and I really should have."

"Kendra," Demona broke into her lover's self-recriminations sternly, "it's alright, after all it's not like I can't make love to you. I just can't when you're in this form. Having you hold me like this and be able to glide with me is so much more than I thought we would be able to do together before now. Don't start regretting making that possible, because I don't, not in any way."

Kendra didn't believe her, oh, she believed her about not regretting the gliding and the winged embrace, but she had already seen the disappointment in Demona's green eyes about the lovemaking. She did appreciate, however, the effort Demona was making to make her feel better about the situation. "I don't regret it," she assured the flame-haired gargoyle. She had seen how much Demona was a creature of the air during their trip here; being able to share that part of the gargoyle's life was worth this one unanticipated disappointment to her. Besides, there was no reason why she couldn't make love to Demona, and there were certain things about this form that were designed with that in just that in mind. She just hadn't considered that Demona would like to reciprocate. It was something that in hindsight she knew she really should have definitely considered even though there was nothing she could do to rectify the problem, but it simply hadn't crossed her mind. She just didn't think of herself as a sexual creature when she was in her jaguar form and that had carried over in her mind to the were-jaguar form.

Unaware of the thoughts in her lover's mind, Demona placed one last kiss on Kendra's lips before pulling away and turning back to the cliff that was their reason for being here. "Let's see if you can climb to the top of this," she said briskly.

Kendra, after a quick intense look at the gargoyles back as she remembered how Demona had stroked up and down her wing joints, filed that information away for later usage. She turned her attention to the cliff in front of them, and stepped up to it staring up at the rough limestone. Tucking her wings behind her, she jumped and extended her claws reaching out for the stone of the cliff, at first they scrapped along the stone, only slowing her descent. She dug her claws in deeper and was relieved when they cut narrow gouges in the stone until they finally caught and brought her to a halt. She stared at her hands, the claws biting into the stone, "Dang, they are that sharp," she commented in astonishment. Amused laughter from next to her had her turning her head to the left, Demona was there hanging from her taloned hands beside her.

"They do seem to be," the flame-haired gargoyle said smiling, "Now try to climb with them like this." Digging her talons into the stone, the gargoyle began climbing hand over hand up the cliff.

It took a few tries for Kendra to determine how to duplicate what the gargoyle was doing. It ended up that the best way was for her to partially extend her claws first, and then force them into the stone using the strength of her hand and forearm while fully extending her claws at the same time until they were fully unsheathed and embedded into the stone.

When they arrived at the top of the cliff, Kendra pulled herself over the edge, rose and looked down upon the stream below. She could feel a constant slight breeze up here and extended her wings to get the feel of it. With her wings extended, Kendra was rather surprised at the amount of force the wind was exerting upon them, and it was suddenly easier to believe that such a slight air current would be enough to keep her airborne.

"Now," Demona began, "Ideally I would have you start off gliding straight down from the cliff, but there isn't quite enough open area for you to do that, so instead we will start off at an angle facing northward. The idea is for you to glide as long as you can up the stream. I'll go first so you can get the idea of how to launch yourself to get airborne. Now watch and stay here, I'll circle around and come back," she instructed as she extended her wings, cupped them slightly against the air. She paused a moment to let Kendra take a good look at how she was angling her wings and then sprang up and forward into the air.

Kendra watched, trying to take in every detail as Demona glided a short distance and then dipped her wing to make a tight turn and head back to the top of the cliff. The gargoyle extended her legs, swept her wings down to slow herself and came to a neat landing a few feet away.

"Don't try turning and coming back for now, just glide as far as you can north up the stream," Demona instructed her, "I'll be right behind you, or did you need me to demonstrate again?"

"No, I think I've got it," Kendra said absently as she lined up angling northward, extending her wings to feel the air currents.

"Just try and land on your feet," Demona added before she could take off, "and if you end up rolling grab your shoulders with your wing claws."

Kendra turned her head to shoot her an offended look, "I am a cat you know."

Demona smirked, "Which is why you should try and land on your feet."

"Humph," Kendra made a little dismissive sound before extending her wings as the gargoyle had done and leaping out into the air. She knew better, from both gymnastics and ice-skating, than to think too much about what she was doing, in many ways her body knew better than she did what it was doing. Instead of thinking about what her wings were doing, she paid attention to how the air felt on them, how much pressure there was from the wind on the underside of her wings and how high in the air she was rising. The forest began to look smaller and smaller as she glided north along the stream, she frowned, she might be rising slightly too much.

"Flatten out the angle some, your gaining too much altitude for right now," Demona's voice came from slightly behind and above her, confirming her suspicion.

Carefully Kendra changed the angle of her wings until she could see that she was no longer rising. She took note of how the wind felt against them, telling herself to equate this feeling with maintaining altitude. She took a few moments to appreciate the sheer joy of what she was doing; she was airborne, gliding along with almost no effort at all. "Did you want me to descend some?" she finally thought to ask.

"Very slowly, I'll be ready to catch you if something goes wrong," Demona instructed, and though Kendra didn't dare look back she could imagine the concerned and protective look on the gargoyle's face.

Incrementally flattening out her wing relative to the wind, Kendra watched closely as the forest below began to get closer. A sudden downdraft had her flaring her wings in surprise as she abruptly lost altitude, too late she realized her mistake as the move cost her most of her forward momentum, "shit," she muttered. "Let me try," she called as she flattened her wings and began diving to regain momentum. She kept a wary eye on the ground now rapidly approaching as she picked up speed.

"Kendra," Demona tense voice warned just before she altered her wing angle to regain altitude now that she had enough forward momentum once again. She fought to hold her wings steady as the strain on them suddenly increased, pulling at the muscles in her back. Either she had the muscles right, in which case they would hold, or she didn't, in which case they wouldn't. Kendra exhaled in relief as the muscles in her back easily withstood the strain and the ground began to recede beneath her once again. She thought she heard a relieved sigh from behind her as she did so, "Am I giving you grey hairs?" she called back brightly.

"I'd prefer not to see you take a header into the ground," Demona sounded upset and slightly angry, "pulling your dead body from that cage was once enough for me."

Kendra sobered quickly, "I'm sorry," she risked turning her head to look around for the gargoyle. The flame-haired gargoyle did look upset; Kendra turned her attention back to watching where she was gliding. "I am sorry," she repeated, "but this isn't exactly the safest thing I could be doing. I need to learn how to get myself out of trouble if at all possible," she said it gently, but also firmly.

Demona didn't immediately respond, and when she did, it wasn't on that subject, "Since we've come so far let's see if you can do a wide turn and head back toward the camp." The flame-haired gargoyle came into Kendra's sight as she took the lead. "Watch and do what I do, it's essentially a gradual lean, we will be going to the right." Kendra followed Demona, gradually leaning her body to the right as they did a large circle over the forest back to the stream and straightened back out to follow it. "We're now flying south and flying with the wind instead of against it," the gargoyle called back, "it's not much different from flying against the wind except you usually pick up more speed going with the wind, if you look down you will notice we're going faster than before."

The were-jaguar looked down, the trees of the forest and the ground did seem to be moving past faster than they had before when they were flying northward against the wind. "Do you know how fast we're gliding?" she asked.

Kendra could see Demona look down, after a few seconds the gargoyle called back, "No idea really, but faster than a horse can gallop. At this rate we will be back to the camp in a few minutes." Noticing the cliffs she had jumped off of to begin this little adventure pass by underneath them, Kendra did not doubt it. "The trick will be," Demona began speaking again, "to decrease altitude and slow down in preparation for landing."

Kendra noticed that she was now slightly above the gargoyle and gaining on her, apparently Demona had begun doing both as soon as she mentioned it. She flattened her wings slightly and started decreasing altitude, but she was still moving faster than Demona.

"Curl the back edge of your wing down slightly," the gargoyle called out from behind her, "but not too much or you'll slow down too fast."

Like the flaps on an airplane wing, Kendra realized, as she followed Demona's suggestion. She noticed the rate of the ground flowing by underneath her decreasing she was slowing down. The flame-haired gargoyle came up beside her and slipped back out in front again.

"Straighten out your wing again, and try and maintain your distance behind me as we come in for a landing," the gargoyle called back. "I'm going to move to the left, don't follow behind me I want you to have space in front of you when we land so we aren't on top of one another."

As instructed, Kendra didn't follow when Demona slid to the left slightly. She focused on maintaining her distance behind the gargoyle, decreasing her altitude and speed as soon as she noticed Demona was either lower or closer than she had been. They were currently gliding perhaps fifteen to twenty feet above the ground, and looking around at the stream and forest, Kendra thought they were almost at the camp.

Almost as if responding to her thoughts, Demona called back, "We're almost to the camp, watch me land and when you're ready do the same." A few seconds afterward, she dropped in altitude several more feet, then bending at the waist she flared her wings, brought her legs forward and neatly landed.

Kendra saw the gargoyle turn and watch her as she followed, descending until the ground was about ten feet away. She flared her wings and brought her legs down and around reaching out for the ground. This felt so much like landing from the high bars in gymnastics that she instinctively rotated her arms against her forward momentum, and bent her legs when they touched the ground taking a hop forward to kill the remaining momentum, but sticking the landing. Of course, as soon as Kendra straightened and realized what she had done she felt rather silly; she turned and looked back at Demona. The gargoyle was staring at her with a puzzled frown. "I landed on my feet," Kendra observed brightly, hoping against hope that the gargoyle hadn't ever watched a gymnastics competition and thus wouldn't recognize what she had done.

Demona nodded, "Yes you did," she agreed, sounding distracted "That was..." the gargoyle stared at her, "a…" she stopped again and gazed at the were-jaguar, "was that from your gymnastics training?" she finally asked in a completely puzzled tone.

Kendra ducked her head, ran her fingers though her hair and rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment, "yea," she responded monosyllabically. She glanced up through her eyelashes at the gargoyle; a slow grin was forming on Demona's red lips.

"Should I find some paper and start giving you marks," asked the redhead slyly, her tail twitching lazily behind her, "I believe that was termed sticking the landing?"

The were-jaguar was glad that her skin was too dark to show how much she was flushing, "yea, it felt a lot like coming off a high bar, it was instinctual, I wasn't thinking about it. Bit silly looking I guess."

Demona eyed her, noticing how embarrassed her lover was for the first time. She decided to drop the teasing, at least for right now, "Well at least you didn't end up on your face or tumbling end over end," she commented. "Tomorrow night perhaps we can go back to the cliff and I'll demonstrate a few landings. While that one worked, it would leave you vulnerable to an attack. There's been a several times I've been either attacked or gone into battle immediately upon landing so I want you to learn to land the same way I do."

Kendra stared at the gargoyle, seeing how serious she was, "Alright, I'd like that. I'd say my training in gymnastics and ice skating is helping me in the air, but I obviously have some new skills to learn."

"I hadn't considered that," Demona responded thoughtfully, "that your training would help with gliding that is," she clarified in response to Kendra's confused expression. "You did much better than I thought you would."

"Thanks," Kendra said smiling briefly. She grimaced, "I've still got a lot to learn though, that jerk back response to that downdraft was exactly the wrong way to react in the air."

Demona nodded her face clouding as she remembered what happened immediately afterward.

"I'm sorry I joked about it, I didn't realize that you were worried," Kendra said quietly.

The fiery-haired gargoyle directed an angry look toward her until she realized her lover was sincere. "You said you weren't certain about the muscles in your wings, whether they were right or not. I didn't know if they could withstand the strain of pulling out of that dive and I wasn't certain there was enough distance between you and the ground for me to get to you if they weren't. I was afraid that I was about to watch you die and be able to do nothing to stop it," she said feeling upset once again as she remembered the moment of intense fear when she realized the strain pulling out of the dive would put on the untested muscles of Kendra's wings.

"Oh," Kendra said feeling stupid and insensitive. It wasn't quite the same, but she imagined that it wasn't too different from the helplessness she had felt while her mother was slowly dying and she could do nothing. She crossed the distance between them and drew Demona into her arms, wrapping her wings around the gargoyle, "I didn't think about that, I was just trying to get enough forward momentum going," she said stroking her fingers slowly through the fiery tresses.

Demona allowed herself to be drawn into Kendra's arms. She rested her head against her lover's chest and closed her eyes, listening to the strong steady beat of Kendra's heart and enjoying the affectionate stroking of her hair. She knew that Kendra had been right when she said that she needed to learn how to get herself out of trouble. Nevertheless, that didn't mean that the gargoyle's heart hadn't been in her throat as she watched the ground get so close that she wasn't certain she could react in time if Kendra hadn't been able to pull out of the dive.

Demona didn't know how long they stood there quietly together. Kendra's thick wings and warm body kept the chill of the night away and the sound of her heart along with the soothing rumbling purr and the slow stroking of her hair made Demona want to just remain there with her lover's wings surrounding her. She couldn't though, the Ancient One was expecting her and she did want to learn how to heal. She sighed reluctant to move even though she knew she had to, "We need to go to the spirit realm," she said rubbing the side of her face against Kendra's soft, thick pelt enjoying the feel of it against her skin.

She felt the purring sound underneath her ear break up as Kendra chuckled, "you sound so enthused," her lover observed.

The gargoyle grinned, "I am, I want to learn how to heal," she forced herself to lift her head away from Kendra's chest, "it's just very nice being held like this."

Kendra leaned forward and placed a brief almost chaste kiss on the red lips, "This won't be the only time, I plan on doing holding you like this quite frequently you know."

"You do?" Demona asked, she heard the wistfulness in her voice and felt embarrassed at being so needy.

"Definitely," Kendra promised her warmly, her blue eyes fixed upon Demona's green ones'.


	20. Chapter 20

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 20**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: none

Notes: This fanfiction does not specifically reference the events in the Unofficial Gargoyles Saga, but I do make use of some of the events and people mentioned therein. Michael or Nostradamus is a character from the TimeDancer Saga : The Devil's Deal by Kathy Pogge.

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/15/08

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Rachael was waiting for them in the spirit realm; standing beside her was a tall tanned man with short salt and pepper hair. The Owl's chosen looked surprised for a moment when she first saw them, and then she smiled approvingly, "Nice look Kendra, I like it."

"Thank you," Kendra's cheerful voice came from behind Demona, "I rather like it myself."

The Cree woman turned to the tall lanky man standing beside her, "Demona, Kendra, I'd like you to meet Wayne Robinson one of Wolf's chosen, he's with the FBI," she introduced him.

Demona met the human male's gaze, the tentative welcoming smile on her face died as she recognized the hard evaluating look he was giving her. She had seen the same look in Goliath's eyes so many times in the past few years. The gargoyle felt Kendra step up beside her, saw the males blue-grey eyes shift slightly and a wary look cross his narrow face. It didn't take much intuition to guess that her lover was giving him a warning look, and considering that Kendra had stayed in her were-jaguar form the glare was probably even more intimidating than usual.

Rachael sighed in annoyance, "Wayne you know what the spirits, including Wolf, decreed," her voice carried her disapproval.

Demona shifted her gaze to the Owl's chosen wondering exactly what the woman was talking about.

The hawk nosed man turned to look at Rachael, and to Demona's surprise he looked appalled at the Cree woman's accusation, "I am not disagreeing with them," he protested, "they're right, she shouldn't be held accountable for the actions the Fey manipulated her into taking." He turned his gaze back to the fiery haired gargoyle, "I'm just not as sure that she won't decide to take up her vengeance again if something happens to the gargoyles from her clan or Kendra. I don't believe that teaching her about nature magic is a good idea right now, I think the Ancient One should wait a few years until she's showed that she can control herself when under pressure."

The gargoyle's green eyes narrowed, "So instead of judging me for what I've done, you're going to judge me for things I haven't yet done?" she asked lashing her tail angrily. She hadn't expected to meet this attitude from the other chosen; she was used to it with her old clan, but not here. She had gotten used to being accepted, she should have know it couldn't last.

"No," Wayne looked back at the gargoyle, "I'm just saying that we shouldn't be handing you a loaded weapon when you've already shown yourself to be liable to use it when you're angry until you've proven that you can control that anger instead of it controlling you."

Demona opened her mouth to snap back when she realized she had no idea what he was talking about, what loaded weapon was she being handed? Moreover, she was uneasily aware that his accusation about her temper and the trouble it had gotten her into in the past was only too accurate.

"She doesn't realize does she?" Wayne said, the hardness in his eyes easing, "The Ancient One hasn't told her, she doesn't know that what can heal can also harm."

Rachael shook her head at him, "She's not human Wayne, she hardly needs to use magic to kill someone when those talons she has can cut into rock and she's about three times as strong as a human," she said exasperated.

"Wolf's chosen," the deep resonant voice of the Irish Elk preceded him as he stepped out of the swirling mists that surrounded them. "Owl's chosen, young Jaguar, my chosen," he greeted them as he walked toward them. He turned his majestic head toward Wayne, "I understand your concern for yourself and your fellow chosen, however, I know my chosen and she is not in danger of misusing the power I have given her."

The Wolf's chosen and the great stag spirit stared at each other for a long moment before Wayne finally looked away, "I hope that you are right Ancient One. I don't ever want to…" his voice trailed off, and he shook his head. He looked back over toward Demona, "Anyway that isn't why I'm here, neither the Canadians nor the FBI has any evidence indicating that you're anything but human. You don't need to worry about them finding out unless whoever kidnapped you decides to publicize it."

"That might be a problem," Kendra commented, "the kidnappers were Quarrymen and they're led by my cousin Jon Canmore who doesn't seem to be entirely sane these days and we suspect he's enchanted as well."

Wayne directed his attention toward the Jaguar's chosen with a sharp look, "I heard about your family, I didn't know that one of them was leading up the Quarrymen though, I thought the guy's name was John Castaway."

Demona watched quietly as Kendra and Wayne discussed her cousin and his change in name and looks. It was obvious to her now that there was something she didn't know about the Wolf's chosen. She hadn't realized it at the time, but despite how Wayne had looked at her, there hadn't been any matching judgmental emotions directed toward her, which there should have been if his thoughts were directed toward her. She hadn't felt anything from him though until he had told her that no one knew Dominique Destine was a gargoyle and then she had felt only reassurance from him. His comments to the Ancient One suggested that if she misused her powers he would become involved in some manner, and she was starting to suspect it was more that possible involvement that was concerning the Wolf's chosen rather than the actual possibility of her misusing her powers.

"We got a call from your Gargoyle Task Force asking if we had heard of any of the organized crime groups we keep an eye on had been directing money toward the Quarrymen," Wayne was saying when Demona's attention returned to the discussion. "We hadn't heard anything, but I'll add them to our list of organizations we keep an eye on. I was thinking about doing that anyway, but their attempt against your lives just gives me that final reason." He nodded toward Demona and Kendra.

This was the helpfulness Demona had expected when she first saw him here; to say she was baffled by him was definitely not an understatement.

Wayne rubbed his hand over his short hair, "Look I know I'm not the best guy for a sensitive conversation…" A snort from Rachael interrupted him; he scowled in her direction before turning back to Demona and continuing. "I really don't think you're a bad sort. You just have a temper to go along with your hair, and I don't want anything bad happening if you fly off the handle and go all apocalyptic on people even if they do deserve it, because we're the ones that will get called in to disable your powers and try and clean things up. I don't want to see you in that situation," it could have sounded like a threat, but it didn't, instead it sounded and felt like a plea.

Demona stared at him, her tail twitching restlessly, responding to her uncertainty, "I don't want to see me in that situation either," she responded after a moment, "but why would you be called into deal with disabling my powers?" She glanced over at the Ancient One questioningly.

"What is given is not so easily taken away," the spirit responded, "and in most instances that response is not necessary."

"Usually all that's needed is to take someone's powers away until they've have a chance to cool down, deal with their anger or grief or whatever's pushed them over the edge," Wayne explained, "then we take the blocks away."

Demona felt Kendra's hands upon her shoulders and the soft, warm press of her chest against her back as her lover stepped close, "So if you're taking all the guns and sharp knives away until it's safe to give them back, what's the big deal? Other than of course the person in question probably really needs some help to get through whatever happened to put them in that headspace in the first place."

"That second one," Wayne responded grimly, "And the fact that a lot of damage can happen before we can get there."

Kendra's thumbs rubbed soothing circles into the muscles of Demona's neck as the were-jaguar softly responded, "I sort of thought that might be the case. You've seen such situations go bad I gather."

An expression of pain ghosted across his lean, narrow face, "yea I have." All of them were silent for a moment as they absorbed that piece of information. "Well, I've got to go," Wayne said looking sad and tired, "I'll let you know if the situation changes."

"Thank you," Demona said to him quickly having the sense that he wanted to leave immediately.

Wayne nodded in reply, and then faded rapidly until he had completely disappeared.

Rachael sighed, "He's never going to get over Alice is he," she said quietly, "not that I guess I blame him."

Demona asked, "Who was Alice?"

"It was about eighty years ago now?" Rachael turned toward the Irish Elk.

"It has been eighty three years since the Crow's chosen took her life," the Ancient One replied.

Kendra's hands on her shoulders stilled at this, Demona asked in dismay, "What happened?"

"Her daughter was raped and killed," Rachael quietly took up the story, "Alice found her in the woods when she went looking for her after she didn't show up for dinner. The men who had raped her had cut her open and left her to bleed to death."

Demona barely felt Kendra's hands tighten on her shoulders she was too busy remembering. The two women in the woods had died like that; she had been horrified when she had found their bodies in front of their cottage. She couldn't imagine how much more horrified a mother would be to find her daughter that way.

"She went after the killers," Rachael continued.

"Surely that's understandable," broke in Demona angrily, remembering how she had killed the men who had done that to the two women, "that a mother has the right to avenge her daughter's murder!"

Rachael frowned pensively, "I don't necessarily disagree with you Demona, but that's not why her powers were blocked by a pack of Wolf's chosen."

"What did she do?" Kendra asked quietly.

"She didn't stop with them; she decided to make sure no one else's daughter suffered what her daughter had suffered," Demona grimaced; she could guess where this story was headed. Images of people turned to stone by her ill-conceived spell danced in her mind; she knew only too well where unchecked vengeance could lead one. Rachael continued, "That was when Wayne and several other Wolf's chosen were sent to block her from her powers."

Demona asked, "What went wrong?"

The Owl's chosen drew in a deep breath, "They got there well ahead of the others sent to help and bound her powers. Unfortunately, none of them thought to keep watch over her other than to make sure she didn't hurt anyone else. She hung herself; Wayne was the one who found her."

Demona flinched, unless you did it exactly right hanging was a slow and painful death. Over the years, she had seen enough humans hanging other humans to know that, and she had almost been strangled by hunters a few times herself.

"So he's blamed himself ever since for not thinking that she might be a danger to herself without an external target for her anger and grief," Kendra commented.

Rachael nodded, "they all did," she added.

Demona asked after a few seconds, "What did you mean by a pack of Wolf's chosen?"

The Cree woman turned her attention to the gargoyle, "Wolf's chosen are stronger when they do their magic in a group each supporting the others. A large enough group of them is strong enough to bind any other chosen, which is why they were given that duty."

"That was not the only reason;" the Irish's Elks voice interposed, "Wolf chooses those that are naturally inclined toward maintaining law, order, and tradition. Those characteristics along with their ability to augment their magic by performing it as a group made them our first choice for such a difficult duty."

"Like Wayne, most of them are in some type of law enforcement organization," Rachael commented.

"That makes sense," Kendra responded. The words law enforcement jogged her memory, and she recalled something she should have mentioned before now, "That reminds me, I heard what I thought was a search plane this afternoon."

"Most likely," Rachael replied, "You will have to be careful from now on with your camp fire. The woods are too dense for them to spot the camp from the air, but they would probably be able to see the smoke from a fire rising above the forest."

Kendra's hands left Demona's shoulders as the were-jaguar stepped around her to stand by her side, "Yea, I already figured that out," she grumbled.

Rachael smirked, "Darn those people trying to rescue us when we don't want to be found just yet."

Demona joined Kendra in chuckling at the quip. She met the Ancient One's eyes; she knew it was time for them to go. "Time for me to go to training," she told Kendra, "Are you staying here or?" she asked glancing over at Rachael. She didn't know if the other woman was staying or leaving tonight.

"I'll stay here," Kendra said, "I need to work on my claws some more, I wasn't anticipating needing to climb up stone and concrete. I felt the strain on them when we climbed that cliff, and from what you're saying I'll need to climb much higher."

The sky-blue gargoyle nodded, "At least three to four times that height to be safe," she confirmed.

Kendra blinked, "Well, alright then," she said, "I guess its back to the drawing board on the claws."

"I've got some time tonight," Rachael offered, "Not sure how much help I'll be though."

"Let us begin," the Ancient One's deep voice drew Demona's attention as the great stag turned and headed into the mists, leaving her no choice but to follow. "Do not be concerned about your young Jaguar," he said as she caught up to him, "the Wise One will arrive shortly, she will find the young Jaguar's problem too interesting to not join her chosen in helping solve it."

"She's not mine," Demona corrected him quietly, feeling the fluttering of uncertainty in her stomach. The thought of Kendra being her mate filled her with equal amounts of joy and fear. She remembered only too well how much Goliath's promises of forever had worked out. The one human friend she had made after her alliance with Macbeth, Michael, who was better known now as Nostradamus, had prophesied when the enchantment on Goliath and the others would be broken. She had waited for four hundred and sixty two years for David Xanatos to be born and obtain enough wealth to raise the castle above the clouds and the first thing Goliath had done was after telling her the centuries had made her hard, unforgiving and not as he remembered her was to leave her to go visit a human.

Goliath wasn't aware of the fact that she had followed him that night. He didn't realize that she had noticed how he looked at the human woman when Elisa reached up and made him look at her upon that rooftop. He might not have realized what he was feeling for the human but she certainly had realized what that look meant after his rejection of her actions in front of the remaining clan. In that moment she had realized that she had suffered all that time alone, she had fought and run from the hunters that would not cease trying to kill her, she had evaded Macbeth during the times he felt suicidal instead of letting her old ally find her and end their shared misery, that she had survived all those lonely, hard years just for her mate to betray her for a human woman.

The irony of her current situation certainly hadn't escaped her. Goliath had his human female lover and now she had hers, and her human lover was rapidly winning her heart. Just as, she guessed, Elisa Maza had won Goliath's. Kendra's loyalty, her understanding, her humor, her gentleness, her fierceness and strength and honor…the list of Kendra's attractive qualities could go on and on, even the fact that Kendra was human had become something that the gargoyle appreciated. As for being her mate, however, they had barely known each other for two weeks. Granted it had been an incredible two weeks, and she felt closer to Kendra right now than she had ever felt towards Goliath, but it was just too soon to think of such things. Why, she and Goliath had courted for years before declaring themselves mates, it was just too soon for her to think of Kendra in that way, Demona told herself. The gargoyle noticed they were almost to the stream, "Where are we going?" she asked the stag spirit.

"The tree that you took flight from was injured by your talons, your task tonight will be to heal the damage," he responded.

"Injured…" she repeated and then fell silent troubled by his words, it hadn't crossed her mind to consider what her talons were doing to the tree when she climbed it to get airborne. They stepped out into the open and turned north; the tree was fairly close for she had taken to the air as soon as they reached the open space. Demona frowned as she stepped up to the shadowy image of the tree, even in the spirit realm she could easily see where her talons had punctured through the bark as she climbed. Resin was seeping out along the injured areas sealing them. She focused her sight and was immediately confused by what she was seeing; she could tell the tree was injured from the discordant flaring of life energy around each wound in its bark, but that was not what was puzzling her. She stared at the closest wound, then above and below it where the unwounded bark was, it almost looked as if tiny motes of life were attacking the wounded area. "Am I seeing bacteria?" she finally hazarded a guess.

"The small motes of life attacking the damaged area?" the spirit inquired, "Yes, they are what the humans call bacteria, they are seeking out the sap of the tree for energy. Unfortunately, in doing so they will cause more damage and the decay of the tree's structure as they multiply and spread among its tissues. To combat this, the tree will form several layers of tissue to wall the bacteria and other organisms away from the damaged area. The tree has already begun to do so; if you look at the area directly above and below the wound you will see that the tree has already walled off the tubes that would transport sap through the affected area so that the bacterial cannot spread through its vascular system."

Demon paid close attention as the Irish Elk spirit continued to explain how the tree would heal itself. She could see the steps it had already taken to protect itself; it was almost like a tiny battle, the bacteria attacking and the tree putting up defensive fortifications to prevent any further incursions.

The Ancient One continued to instruct, "Look at the nature magic around you, whereas all life magic is held within living things nature magic is not. You will notice small amounts of unclaimed energy available in the air and land around you, reach out your will toward it and call it to you."

The flame haired gargoyle altered her sight, examining the nature energy around her, searching for what the Irish Elk was describing. She hadn't noticed any excess nature energy when they were having their lesson on nature magic a few days ago, but then she hadn't been looking for it. Now though, specifically searching for it, she could see the motes of energy floating all around her almost like dust in a sunbeam. She reached out her will to them, and called them to her. Slowly at first and then faster they flowed into her, she felt a tingling inside her that grew and grew. It didn't feel unpleasant but neither did it feel soothing, it felt restless as if she needed desperately to do something with it, to run about madly or jump or…

"Chosen," the stag spirit said sounding amused, "let the energy know you have enough."

Oh yes, she definitely had enough energy, Demona thought, becoming uneasily aware of the fact that even her thoughts seemed to be chasing themselves around restlessly inside her head. As the energy flow into her slowed and finally stopped, the fiery haired gargoyle realized her tail was lashing from side to side betraying her agitation.

Seeing that his chosen had stopped the energy flow the Ancient One continued, "Unfortunately you cannot heal the tree from the spirit realm; you must go into the living world. For me to instruct you once you have reached this tree you will need to know how to span the two realms, to remain in the living realm while being partially in the spirit." The stag spirit stared at his chosen taking in the restless way she shifted from taloned foot to taloned foot, the twitching of her wings and agitated lashing of her tail. "Perhaps it would be wise to take in less energy next time," he offered dryly, his ears twitching. Demona stared at him, from the way his ears were flicking back and forth, she had the definite impression that he was laughing at her. "You can ground excess energy into the earth, simply place your hand upon the ground and let some of your energy bleed away through the connection," the Irish Elk directed her.

"You could have mentioned that earlier," the gargoyle complained as she did as he suggested. The great stag spirit did not reply, he merely watched as she grounded enough of the energy so that it no longer felt as if it were trying to crawl out of her skin.

"Chosen," the Irish Elks deep voice drew the gargoyles attention; her green eyes went to his brown one's. Realizing that he wished to impart knowledge to her, Demona met the stag's gaze. Information flowed from the spirit to her as he showed her how to span the two realms so she could talk to him while in the living.

"I should go tell Kendra what's happening so she doesn't get pulled out of the spirit realm when I leave the tent," Demona said as soon as she understood.

The great stag dipped his antlered head, "I shall remain here and await you."

Demona went to all fours and began running swiftly back through the forest to the clearing where Kendra and Rachael were located. When she arrived, as the Ancient One had predicted, the Eagle Owl spirit was there as well.

"Demona?" Kendra questioned, worried at the way the gargoyle had rushed into the clearing.

The flame-haired gargoyle quickly explained what she needed to do, and that she hadn't wanted to disturb Kendra when she slipped out of her arms and left the tent.

"Actually," said the blue eyed were-jaguar, "We're done with my claws, and I'd like to see this if you don't mind the company."

The Wise One remarked, "There will likely be little to see, but none the less it may prove interesting."

"I don't know what there will be to see," Demona admitted. Turning to Kendra, she said warmly, "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do yet, but I certainly won't mind your company."

Kendra grinned, "I guess we will find out when we get there then. Rachael, Wise One, thank you again for your help with these," she extended her claws which glittered in the dim light.

Demona stared at the sharp talons that now shone like obsidian; she reached over and grabbed one of Kendra's hands before her lover could retract her claws. "They didn't look like this before, what did you do to them?"

"Changed the composition of the claw itself to make it harder so that it could dig into stone or concrete easier, and made the tendon that extends the claw stronger," Kendra explained.

"Demona, Kendra," Rachael said, drawing their attention, "I need to get going, unless something changes I'll see you in three days, I should arrive just after noon."

Demona nodded, "We'll have everything packed and ready." Her green eyes widened as she remembered what the Ancient One had said about making a second amulet for Kendra, "Rachael, we will need the materials for a second amulet, will that be difficult?"

The Owl's chosen gave her a bemused look, "No, but why?"

"The Ancient One suggested that Kendra will need one for herself for the same reason I need one," Demona looked over at her winged lover.

Kendra's sapphire blue eyes widened in realization, "To explain how I could change to this," she indicated her current form, "If the clan sees me."

"Very forward thinking of the Ancient One," the Eagle Owl said approvingly, "it is likely you will eventually encounter that situation and have need of such an item."

Rachael nodded, "I'll have two amulets ready for Thursday night," she assured them with a smile. She turned toward the Eagle Owl, "Good night Wise One."

"Good night to you my chosen," the Owl replied.

"Thank you Rachael," Demona just had time to say before the Owl's chosen disappeared.

Kendra turned toward the Eagle Owl, "Good night Wise One, and thank you for your suggestions they were perfect."

"You are welcome young Jaguar," the Wise One replied.

"Why does almost everyone call me that instead of Jaguar's chosen?" Kendra finally asked.

The Wise One clicked her beak together a few times, now Demona was almost certain that was the owl's version of laughter. "Because those who are chosen by the Jaguar, and chose the Jaguar, are more intertwined with the gift of his spirit than are most other chosen. Your human spirit and the jaguar spirit inside you are becoming one; you are more than just chosen, you are jaguar and human." The owl's luminous yellow eyes regarded Kendra intently, "Most of you go feral after enough years, choosing to spend all their time as a jaguar. I do not believe, however, that will be the case with you," her gaze shifted briefly to meet the gargoyle's, "I think you will have reason to keep your humanity dominant rather than submerge your humanness within the solitary jaguar."

Demona's eyes widened as she took in this information, some part of her had already realized that Kendra was different from either she or Rachael. She just hadn't realized exactly what the difference was between the black-haired woman and them.

"You might be right," Kendra replied quietly to the Owl spirit, blue eyes turning toward the fiery haired gargoyle.

The warmth in Kendra's blue gaze it seemed to go straight to Demona's heart where it lit a sweet aching yearning. Recalling her reason for being there in the first place, the gargoyle cleared her throat, "We should go; the Ancient One is waiting for me."

Kendra nodded, her form wavered and disappeared leaving Demona alone with the Wise One. She hesitated a moment, "Solitary?" she asked the owl spirit.

"Jaguars mate once a year, but they do not remain with their mates. They raise their young alone and remain alone almost their entire lives. Humans however, like gargoyles, desire and need mates with which they can form a bond with that spans their entire lifetime," the Wise One responded.

Demona nodded thoughtfully, "Good night Wise One."

"Good night Ancient One's chosen," the Eagle Owl spirit replied. Feeling a sense of satisfaction, the Wise One watched as the gargoyle disappeared. Everything seemed to be proceeding as she and the Ancient One had hoped it would proceed. Already the changes in temperament and attitude she noticed in the gargoyle since the fiery haired one had first appeared here were striking.

As for the young jaguar, it looked as if Jaguar's experiment with choosing a human who was not from the tribes who had worshiped him was reaping unexpected benefits. The humans mind was as quick and agile as her body. No one before her had explored the limits of their shapeshifting abilities as she was and the Wise One knew the Jaguar was impressed with her developing abilities. Her developing relationship with the gargoyle female was surprising, but it seemed to be working out for the betterment of both chosen and the Wise One hoped it would continue to flourish and mature.

Becoming aware of the warm body, and strong arms and wings wrapped around her once again, Demona allowed herself a few seconds to just enjoy the scent and feel of her lover. Kendra's arms tightened around the gargoyle and Demona turned her head enough to be able to rub her cheek against the soft thickness of the were-jaguar's fur. A rumbling soft purr began in the chest underneath her ear, and the gargoyle's lips curved into a smile. The ability to purr was one of the unique things about Kendra that the flame-haired gargoyle particularly enjoyed. Gargoyles could produce a low rumble in their chest that was almost a purr, but it really wasn't anything like the true sonorous feline purr she was hearing and feeling now.

"We need to get going," Kendra's reluctant voice echoed underneath the gargoyle's ear.

Demona stifled the grumble of disappointment she wanted to make, the Ancient One was waiting for her and she did want to learn how to heal. The little she had learned earlier only made her more interested in finding out what else the great stag had to teach her tonight. Four minutes later, they arrived at the pine tree she had climbed only two hours before. Demona looked upon the ugly gashes her talons had left in its reddish bark with a feeling of regret. She hadn't meant to damage the tree she had only wanted to show Kendra how to get airborne and finding the cliff they were seeking.

Kendra examined the bark of the tree seeing the damage Demona's talons had left in its bark when the blue gargoyle climbed it earlier. She glanced over at her lover, and seeing the troubled look on the beautiful face offered, "I wouldn't have thought about it either Demona. I can't even tell you the number of trees I've sharpened my claws on over the years." The were-jaguar smirked, "I guess I'll have to make myself a very large scratching post to use instead."

Demona's jaw dropped for a moment at the image that popped into her mind, and then she started chuckling, "That will have to be some scratching post to withstand the claws you have now," she observed.

Kendra extended her claws and stared at them thoughtfully, "Hmm, it will have to be won't it."

The gargoyle shook her head, smiling; she turned her attention back to the tree, "I need to get going, he's going to be wondering what's taking me so long." Demona closed her eyes and concentrated on reaching out to the spirit realm while keeping her consciousness within the living. It took her a few tries, she knew how to do what she wanted thanks to the Irish Elk spirit, but knowing how was the easy part, it was the concentration required for accomplishing what she knew how to do that was hard.

She knew she had succeeded when she heard the voice of the Ancient One greeting her, "Chosen."

She opened her eyes; the sprit realm appeared laid on top of the living world, turning the trees a shade greyer than they had been in the dark. The great stag spirit appeared as a shadow to her sight standing majestically beside the pine tree. "Ancient One," she returned his greeting.

"Let us begin," he said briskly, "for this is much more draining than being fully in the spirit realm, and I do not wish you to injure yourself."

Demona nodded, "what should I do?"

"First focus your attention on the injury closest to the earth," the Irish Elk instructed, "you now understand how the tree will heal itself. Your first task is to assist the tree in its natural healing process. Concentrating on the energies appearance, release the nature energy you took in into the wound as life energy. As the life energy flows into the tree will it to assist the tree in healing as you envision the healing process in your mind."

The gargoyle altered her sight so that she could see the life magic around her; the tree appeared more brilliantly golden here in the living realm than it had in the spirit realm. The wounds in its bark were also more noticeable; the life energy around each wound was flaring in what almost appeared to be pain. "Do trees feel pain," she asked quietly.

"What?" she heard Kendra say in surprise just before the spirit answered.

The great stag met her gaze, "All living things know when they are injured. However, if you are asking if the tree feels pain as you would, then no, it does not have a nervous system or brain to interpret the injury in that manner. It does have chemical reactions that let the entire tree know that it is injured and where the injury is and that is what you are seeing."

Reassured, Demona laid her hand over the gnash in the tree's bark and willed herself to see golden light moving from her hand into the injury. When the golden light began flowing, she thought about how the tree made a barrier around the injured area, protecting itself from further damage and rot.

"Very good," the great stag praised her, "look upon your work chosen."

The gargoyle let her sight go back to normal and looked at the gash, it looked months old now instead of new. The bark around it had healed and the small amount of exposed pith that had been bleeding resin was now a hard, smooth barrier of wood.

Kneeling beside her Kendra reached out and touched the bark around the healed injury. Her blue eyes turned toward Demona, and the gargoyle could see that her lover was impressed. Seeing the results of her efforts the fiery haired gargoyle was rather impressed herself, her lips curved upward with a small, pleased smile.

"Color me impressed," said Kendra.

The gargoyle turned her head to look at her lover, she hadn't heard that particular human idiom before and wondered if it were just rhetorical or there was a actually color associated with being impressed like white with purity and red for courage.

Before she could ask, the Irish Elk said, "The next healing will be more difficult; instead of encouraging the tree to heal on its own; you will provide enough life energy to knit together the pith and bark until it is whole once again."

Demona whipped her head around to look at him, "How am I supposed to do that?"

The spirits ears flicked rapidly back and forth once, "You will need to take in more nature energy before beginning," he advised, "however, before you do so let us discuss how you will bring about this healing." The great stag had her examine the uninjured bark and pith nearest the injured area closely. She needed to know exactly how each tissue was composed because she would have to shape the life energy to match the uninjured tissues exactly. Once she had the energy in place, she would weave the energy among the damaged tissues and then pull them together just as if she were stitching a wound closed.

Now that she understood what she was to do, Demona altered her sight so that she could see the nature energy around her. There seemed to be more of it here than she remembered, but perhaps that was because she was not reaching from the spirit realm into the living. She began drawing in the energy; as soon as she began to feel the itching sensation underneath her skin, she willed the energy absorption to stop not wanting a repeat of the first time she had done this.

"What are you doing?" Kendra asked curiously, "you're acting very…fidgety all of a sudden."

Demona looked over at her lover; the were-jaguar was observing her intently her head cocked slightly to the side as she stared at the gargoyle with a puzzled expression. "It's because I've absorbed some nature energy, it makes me feel as if I itch all over," the gargoyle explained. She placed her hands around the edges of the gnash in the pine bark, concentrating on what she needed to do. A few minutes later she gazed in amazement at the undamaged bark of the pine tree, there was no sign now of the ugly rip in the bark that had been there before. She knew she had done this, but she was still left with a sense of unreality as she looked at the evidence of her work.

"Wow," the awe in Kendra's voice as she reached up and ran her finger over the now unblemished reddish bark filled Demona with pleasure tinged with embarrassment.

The confusing mixture of pleasure and embarrassment only increased when the Irish Elk added quietly in his deep, resonant voice, "Very well done chosen." The great stag waited until his chosen's gaze went to the remaining talon marks, "Leave the others to heal naturally, over the next few days watch and learn how the tree heals itself. Now for your last lesson this night, pull a small amount of nature energy into yourself," he instructed. When she had done as he asked he continued, "Focus upon the energy and will it to form itself into a sphere of energy in your open hand. You do not want to burn yourself, so when you will it to create light think of light that gives off no or little heat."

Light that gives off no or little heat, Demona repeated the stag's instructions to herself as she stared at the ball of nature energy that now floated just above her outstretched hand. Cold light, blue light, her mind answered, no sooner had she thought it than the energy sphere lit up with blindingly brilliant blue-white light. Demona flinched away from the bright light closing her eyes against it and there was a protesting yowl from Kendra at the same time. The gargoyle's concentration broken, the light winked out of existence. Spots danced in front of her eyes when Demona opened them.

"Ok, that would be a useful weapon at night," Kendra commented after a moment.

"I'm sorry," Demona apologized, still blinking her eyes trying to recover from the sudden light, "I didn't realize it would be that bright," she mumbled embarrassed. She heard Kendra's quiet chuckle just before the were-jaguar's strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was pulled into a warm reassuring hug.

"You definitely did it though," her lover noted, amusement clear in her tone.

The gargoyle had to join the were-jaguar in her amusement at that comment, "I guess I did, didn't I. Let me try for less light this time." Kendra let her go and the gargoyle held out her hand once again, concentrating on reforming the energy ball, this time though she carefully thought about creating a dim blue light. This time though the light was barely brighter than a candle.

The Ancient One said, "You can control the intensity of the light by focusing your will upon it."

Demona concentrated upon the light floating above her palm, it slowly increased in brightness until it was as bright as a lamp and cast a cool blue light upon the forest around them.

"Are you doing that?" Kendra asked, Demona looked over at her and noticed there was a delighted smile on her lover's face as she watched the globe of light.

Demona's expression lit with a matching smile, "The Ancient One's teaching me how to control it," she confirmed.

The great stag said, "You can control its location in the same manner. Move the light around you chosen; it does not have to remain in your hand."

Demona stared at the globe of light in her hand and willed it to rise. Obedient to her will it rose a few inches into the air and halted, she lowered her hand and stared at the glowing globe in wonder. This was so different from sorcery, the gargoyle thought, with sorcery you spoke the spell and the globe appeared and would follow you, but you didn't really have direct control over it. This though, this she had direct control over, Demona willed the globe to rise and move to the side. She smiled delightedly as the globe smoothly obeyed, moving to exactly where she wanted it.

"Coolness," Kendra exclaimed, and then looked embarrassed at the gaucheness of her outburst.

The flame haired gargoyle couldn't help it; she began laughing merrily at her lover. The sound of it rang in the cold night air, light and joyous. Kendra smiled delighted at the gargoyle, her blue eyes crinkling up at the corners as she enjoyed the sight of the gargoyle laughing so unreservedly.

"I believe you are familiar with the idea that light is merely a type of emitted energy?" the spirit asked as soon as his chosen had stopped laughing.

Demona turned her attention to him, "I am," she confirmed becoming more serious as she turned her attention back to the Ancient One.

"The nature energy you used to create the globe is being transformed into this type of emitted energy, the light will last as long as there is energy to supply it," the Irish Elk explained. "Now that you understand the basic…"

While the Irish Elk was speaking, a sly look came over the were-jaguar's face, "Can you make it bigger and disk like?" she asked completely unaware that the stag spirit was speaking.

Demona held up one finger, "Just a second, the Ancient One is speaking," she said quietly, moderating the admonishment with a quick smile for the were-jaguar. Kendra eyed the empty space where her lover was staring intently, it was odd knowing that Demona was seeing and hearing the Ancient One in the spirit realm when she could not.

Apparently unperturbed by the interruption except for a brief flicker of one ear the majestic stag began again, "Now that you understand the basic method for producing light, be aware of the fact that I had you created it as cold light only to keep it from burning your hand. You may use the light as a heat source as well, though this will use up the nature energy supplying it more rapidly."

As soon as he finished, Demona looked at the globe and willed it to increase in size and change shape, she looked back at her lover inquiringly.

Kendra started chuckling, "Can you make it look like one of those flying saucers from the fifties shows?"

Demona smirked, she did happen to know exactly what Kendra was referring to having watched about ten minutes of one of the ridiculous black and white movies one Sunday afternoon before changing the TV channel. The disk thickened and sported what looked like windows along its edge, and as a final touch she sent it spinning wobbly.

Kendra began laughing, in between bouts she gasped, "You realize we could take this on the road and start a new UFO craze right?"

The gargoyle looked at the disk spinning irregularly on its axis, she shook her head, "I don't think you're supposed to be tempting me to do cruel things to humans," she commented chuckling. The gargoyle glanced over at the giant stag spirit who was regarding the still chuckling Kendra with interest, one of his ears cocked toward her.

He looked over at his chosen and shook his antlered head, apparently choosing to not address their antics, "If you will modify the globe so that it emits heat our lesson will be over for this evening."

She willed the globe back to its original shape brought it closer and concentrated. Its color changed to a more natural light, the gargoyle lifted her hand toward it and felt the warmth it was now giving off.

"Congratulations, chosen," the Irish Elk said. "Tomorrow night we will investigate the Weird Sisters appearances during the night when you cast the sorcerous spell to turn the inhabitants of the city to stone. Perhaps you can divine a meaning to their words and actions that I could not."

Demona caped her wings about herself, she didn't really want to see or hear anything about that time. She would frankly rather forget it had ever occurred, but she knew that wasn't possible. She looked up at the great stag; he was gazing at her steadily. She saw nothing judgmental in his eyes only a sternness that she sensed would permit no shying away from this task on her part. She nodded.

"Go wholly into the living realm my chosen;" the great spirit said gently, "I will see you again tomorrow."

"Good night Ancient One," Demona replied before she let her consciousness return completely to the living realm.


	21. Chapter 21

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 21**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: Sexual Content

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/21/08

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Demona was quiet as they returned through the woods to their camp; Kendra glanced over at her, wondering why the gargoyle's mood had suddenly changed from laughter and happiness to this. They entered camp and she went over to the stove to heat up their second dinner.

"I wish we could start a fire and sit next to it," Demona said, finally breaking the silence.

Kendra considered it for a few seconds, "If we had enough dirt to cover it in a hurry we could, I can hear the planes from far enough away."

The gargoyle glanced over at her surprised; she hadn't meant what she said as an actual request. It had been more something to say to break the silence. She knew Kendra was concerned at her sudden change in mood, but she didn't really want to speak about what was bothering her. She looked over at the empty fire pit considering the idea, reluctantly she shook her head, "We can't risk it, how would we explain all this," she indicated the camp with a sweep of her hand, "If they did notice the fire?"

The were-jaguar grimaced, Demona was right it would be a foolish risk to take, "You're right. I just wanted to…" her voice trailed off in a discontented sigh. She shrugged irritatedly seeing her plans for this night going down the drain, and at the same time was angry with herself for being so selfish.

Demona stared at her lover; jarred out of her own concerns by the way that Kendra was acting. She walked up behind the were-jaguar and slipped her hands under the dark feathered wings and around Kendra's waist. She rested her head against her lover's back and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Kendra let out a bark of laughter, she glanced over her shoulder, "I would think that would be my line," she responded pensively.

The flame haired gargoyle sighed, "The Ancient One wants to go over the Weird Sisters actions the night I cast that spell to turn people into stone."

"Oh," Kendra said softly on an exhaled breath, she rested her hand upon the arms wrapped around her waist and squeezed gently. "Maybe you'll be able to figure out what they were up to." She hesitated, she was fairly certain Demona's answer would be a quick no, but she had to make the offer, "did you want me to go with you?"

Demona felt an icy chill go through her at the thought of Kendra seeing the callous, mocking manner in which she had acted that night, "No!" She felt the were-jaguar flinch at the answer. "No," she said again in a much softer voice, "I don't want you to see the way I acted that night," she admitted, "I said and did things that I'm ashamed of now, and it's hard enough knowing that the Ancient One saw it all." She felt the were-jaguar draw in a deep breath and release it, and waited quietly for Kendra's response

"Alright," Kendra replied quietly, "I won't."

"Thank you," Demona whispered burying her face in the thick black fur and drawing in a deep breath. Her lover's scent was heavier and muskier in this form, closer to Kendra's scent when she was a jaguar. The silence this time was a more comfortable one, punctuated only by the occasional scrape of the spoon against the side of the pot as Kendra stirred the stew so that it would heat evenly. Demona didn't move away from Kendra, remaining where she was resting against the were-jaguar's back and Kendra's hand remained upon the gargoyle's arm holding it where it was around her waist.

Twenty-five minutes later, they had eaten, scoured out the dishes and pot with snow and returned to their tent. "Brrr, I can tell I'm going to be cold already," complained Kendra, kneeling on the top of the sleeping bags and caping her wings around herself.

"Changing back?" inquired Demona.

"Yes," Kendra responded distractedly. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her face revealing her discomfort as her body began changing back to its human form. Her wings shrunk and disappeared at the same time as her fur thinned and then disappeared altogether. The color of her skin lightened until it was its usual dusky olive tone and her body became slightly less tall and muscular as she returned to her normal height.

Demona waited until Kendra's change was complete before insisting, "Get into the sleeping bag, I can use what I learned tonight to heat the tent for us." The gargoyle watched as Kendra slipped into the sleeping bag, grimacing at its coldness against her bare skin. "One of the last things the spirit told me was that I could not only create light but heat as well."

Kendra said, "I thought the globe seemed to be giving off heat when its color changed, but I wasn't sure and then you dismissed it."

The gargoyle nodded, "It was," she confirmed as she altered her vision and looked around for available nature magic. It was everywhere as Demona was coming to expect, and she wondered how available it would be in the city compared to the abundance of it here in the wilderness. She began summoning it, pulling it in well past the point of comfort before willing it to stop. Stretching out her hand she willed the energy to gather in a globe there eager to get rid of the intense itching restless sensation that made her both want to scratch bloody furrows in her skin and run around the forest wildly. The itching, restless sensation faded as the nature energy gathered into a swirling golden globe of energy floating about an inch above the palm of her hand.

"I can see it," Kendra's startled exclamation caused Demona to look away from the globe and toward her lover.

"You can?" the fiery haired gargoyle responded, startled.

"Not well, but I can see something above your hand its distorting the air just a little bit," explained Kendra from where she was huddled in the sleeping bag.

Demona turned her attention back to the golden globe of energy with its brightly swirling motes of green, gold, brown and grey dancing through it. She wished Kendra could see what she saw for it was truly beautiful, but they each had been given different gifts.

"What are you seeing?" the black haired woman asked softly.

Demona answered just as softly, "A golden globe with motes of forest green, earth brown, brilliant gold and stone grey dancing within it."

Kendra's sapphire blue eyes widened at the description, she stared at the shimmering in the air trying to imagine what Demona was seeing as she looked at it. As she was staring at it, the globe began glowing with a soft reddish-white light and incongruously she was reminded of her words to Rachael just two days ago. That Demona needed to learn how to feel an appreciation for the world and the living things upon it. That she needed to cherish something and find it of worth and of value enough to nurture and protect it.

The black-haired woman slipped a hand out from underneath the shelter of the sleeping bag and held it out toward the glowing globe, there was heat radiating from it. She stared at it, her mind considering the thought that the gifts given to Demona might have been given for more than one purpose, and one of them might have been to give the gargoyle reason to appreciate and cherish the world. She thought back to how Demona had reacted to the injuries she had done to the tree, the quiet asking if it felt pain. Kendra didn't know what the answer to the question had been, but it was significant that the gargoyle had asked it at all and had cared about the answer.

"There that should heat up this area nicely," Demona's satisfied tone drew Kendra's attention. The gargoyle was staring at the glowing globe with satisfaction, a pleased smile curving her lips. Kendra's eyes rested upon those red lips, remembered the night that they had made love by the fire, remembering how those lips had claimed her so intimately. She saw them open slightly revealing the whiteness of teeth and fang, a pink tongue darted out to moisten their fullness. Her gaze rose and met the gargoyles widened green eyes. She pushed herself up to rest on one elbow and forearm, her eyes dark and intent, "Are you tired?" she asked huskily.

She saw Demona's chest rise with a quick indrawn breath and the long, sinuous tail twitch before the gargoyle answered, "No, after today's stone sleep I won't need to rest except for a few hours in the morning."

"Good," Kendra responded simply, let her eyes wander over the gargoyles body, admiring once again the slim, lithe, strength revealed in every limb. Her eyes went to the gargoyle's wings, the dark lavender of the outer wing membrane that was almost black in this light, and the lighter lavender of the inside of the wing. She remembered how the gargoyle had tried to arouse her by the cliff by stroking and rubbing lightly along her wing joints. "It's a pity I didn't know about your wing joints the other night by the fire," she observed quietly.

Demona drew in a sharp breath and the gargoyle's wings quivered briefly in response. Kendra shifted, rising gracefully from where she had been leaning on her forearm to a seated position. "It's already starting to get warm in here," she observed. There was a muffled snort from the gargoyle that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Kendra's lips curved up in a smile, acknowledging the unintentional double entendre. She gazed at the gargoyle kneeling in the center of the tent; Demona was still and silent, her eyes dark and waiting. "I want to touch you, to explore every inch of your body and learn how to give it pleasure," she said meeting Demona's green eyes directly.

Demona stared at her, her eyes glazed. It took a moment for the gargoyle to find her voice, "I would be more than willing to show you," she finally replied.

Kendra's full lips curved in an utterly wicked smile, "Oh no, I don't want you breathe a word unless I touch or am about to touch you in a way that you don't want me to or doesn't feel good. I want to find out for myself what pleases you." Demona's eyes darkened at that and she nodded, moistening her suddenly dry lips with her tongue. The thought of Kendra exploring her body, searching out the places that would please her, caused a slow steady yearning ache to start deep within Demona's body.

The black haired woman looked around the interior of the tent. The two sleeping bags they had zipped together to make one large enough for both of them were on one side of the tent, while around the edges they had folded and stacked the clothing Rachael had brought them on top of the silver survival blankets. "Let's move the sleeping bags to the center of the tent so I have enough room."

Demona wondered exactly what Kendra planned that required so much room as she willed the reddish globe to move from the center of the over to the side, keeping it well away from the wall of the tent. She moved out of the way and helped the black-haired woman slide over the sleeping bags. Once the sleeping bags were in place, Kendra patted the center, "sit here and let me undress you."

Careful of her talons, the fiery haired gargoyle obediently knelt upon the sleeping bags, curious to find out what her lover intended. Kendra knelt behind her, brushed the shoulder loop of her halter-top off her shoulder and placed a kiss there before lifting it up over her breasts. Demona lifted her arms and allowed her lover to pull the halter over and off. She expected the black-haired woman to begin touching her breasts, but Kendra only rested her hands lightly on the top of her shoulders and pressed a kiss against her shoulder once again. To the gargoyle's surprise, the next thing her lover did was to unfasten and remove the gold hoops in her ears. Those were laid aside carefully, and then Kendra's fingertips brushed slowly along the outside edge of her ears and briefly caressed each earlobe where they had been. The next pieces removed where her armband and the anklet around leg, each was laid aside and each place where they had been was caressed gently.

Demona was not particularly surprised when Kendra's hands went to the gold headband next, she was also getting the feeling that her lover planned to take her time, for each move Kendra made was slow, deliberate and very gentle. Demona's eyes closed in enjoyment as Kendra gently stroked her fingers along her exposed eye ridge leaving tingling trails in their wake. When the black-haired woman's hands went to her shoulders once again and pulled gently back, the gargoyle leaned back and rested against Kendra's chest.

There was only one piece of clothing left; Kendra allowed her hand to trail down Demona's stomach slowly till she reached it. She undid the buckle and slowly pulled the loincloth and belt from around the gargoyle's slender waist.

Demona drew in a deep breath, waiting to see what her lover would do next. Strangely, given the skimpiness of her usual attire, she felt very exposed without her tiara without any jewelry or clothing. Kendra shifted closer so they were melded back to front; one arm went around Demona's slim, muscular waist and held the blue gargoyle firmly against the black-haired woman while the other reached up underneath the gargoyle's wings and between Demona's breasts to rest her hand on the gargoyle's chest above her heart. It rested there, almost as if it were cradling the gargoyle's heart within it while Kendra began nuzzling and kissing the gargoyle's neck and closest shoulder.

The fiery haired gargoyle allowed herself to relax into her lover's embrace. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of her lover behind her, the warmth of her and the contrast of softness and strength. She breathed in and out slowly, Kendra's arm wrapped around her waist and the hand over her chest holding her securely, safely. She felt tears prick at her eyes, and the sensation surprised her, she wasn't sure why she felt close to tears except that Kendra's hand resting so gently upon her chest seemed to be silently promising that the woman would treat her heart the same way.

The silence was broken by a whispered, "Would you prefer to start out on your back or stomach?"

Demona slowly opened her eyes, considering the question and the implicit promise in it that she would eventually be on both. "My back," she responded finally. Kendra released her and moved back to the edge of the sleeping bag to give the gargoyle room.

"Keep your wings as close in as possible," Kendra directed quietly, "I'll need to move around you."

Wondering what Kendra intended that she would need to move around her, Demona lay down on her back being careful to arrange her wings beneath her so she was comfortable and so that they didn't extend very far. To the gargoyle's surprise, once she was settled Kendra knelt at her head, leaned over, and began massaging the tense muscles in her neck.

"This would be much better if I had massage oil, but I'll see how I can do without it," her lover murmured as her fingers rotated and pressed into the tense muscles.

Demona stared up at her for a surprised moment before telling herself to relax and enjoy what was happening. She hadn't been expecting to get a massage, indeed this would be her first one. She had heard about them of course, but before Kendra would have hardly let a human touch her in this manner and gargoyle hands weren't exactly suited to it. Demona closed her eyes once again, choosing to focus on what her lover's hands were doing as they kneaded down her neck and began working on the muscles of her shoulders and upper chest.

Kendra felt the muscles she was working on become loser as Demona relaxed into the massage. The gargoyle's green eyes were closed and the black-haired woman could tell from the pleased look on Demona's face that the gargoyle was finding the massage soothing. It was time to switch her stroke from pure massage into something that would arouse, she started back at the neck and ran her hands caressingly down across the gargoyle's shoulders then back lightly over the collarbones and down once again.

Demona opened her eyes slightly when she felt Kendra's touch change from a muscle relaxing massage to light caresses along her shoulders. Her arousal, which had been decreasing as she relaxed into the soothing massage, rose once again. Through her half closed eyes she saw her lover's face descend, a moment later soft lips touched hers, lightly, caressingly once, twice, a third time and then they were gone. She heard and felt Kendra shift and move, out of the corner of her eye she saw the black-haired woman move around her and kneel once again by her waist. Demona closed her eyes as the massage began again at her shoulder; slowly the kneading, pressing and rubbing fingers worked their way down her right arm.

When Kendra reached her hand she felt it being lifted, fingers interlaced with hers and Demona felt the palm of her hand being stretched outward, nothing else happened for a long moment as the tendons in her hand grew accustomed to being stretched in a way they hadn't before. Kendra's fingers relaxed, ending the stretch and then Kendra's thumbs began rubbing in firm circles along the fleshy parts of her palm. The gargoyle let out a breathy sigh, what Kendra was doing felt so good, she would have never guessed that her hands would appreciate being touched in this manner.

From Demona's palms Kendra moved onto massaging up one taloned finger, at the tip she massaged the fleshy pad for a moment then her strokes turned caressing as she circled around the tip of Demon's index finger, carefully up the talon and back down again and then repeated the motion. With feather light circular caresses she made her way back down the gargoyle's finger, then, her touch firming she went on to the next finger and began to massage it. Demona was having a hard time deciding which she liked more, the massage or the sweetly arousing caresses, the combination of both was causing her to feel an intriguing combination of relaxation and slowly increasing arousal.

The one arm and hand finished, Kendra quietly moved around to the other side of the gargoyle's body and began at the shoulder once again, repeating the entire process as she moved down Demona's left arm, and ending with the hand and fingers. This time instead of placing her hand back by her side Kendra brought it up to her mouth and began delicately brushing her lips against the inside of the gargoyle's wrist. Demona opened her eyes and met her lover's darkened gaze, lips pressed against her wrist, parted showing white teeth. Her blue eyes still locked with Demona's gaze Kendra dragged her teeth slowly and lightly down the gargoyle's wrist and then pressed one final kiss against the pulse point there before lowering the gargoyle's hand to her side.

Demona let out the breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding, she hadn't been aware that the skin of her wrist was so sensitive. Not that Goliath, or even Thailog when he was in the mood to be gentle, had been bad lovers, but they had pretty much kept their caresses to the usual places. Kendra however, seemed to be intent on touching every inch of her.

Kendra hadn't failed to notice the held breath or the look of surprise in Demona's green eyes when she caressed the gargoyle's wrist, in fact she was getting the impression that Demona had never been touched like this at all. "Have you never had a massage before?" she asked softly.

Demona shook her head slightly, "No I haven't."

Kendra smiled crookedly, "Now I really wish I had some massage oil so I could do this properly. When we get back I promise you I'll give you a proper massage."

The flame haired gargoyle's stomach fluttered slightly at the thought, what Kendra was doing now felt very good, how much better it would feel with Kendra's hands sliding smoothly over her oiled skin. "I'll be sure to remind you," the gargoyle said a little breathless.

The black-haired woman smirked at the reply, as she looked over the gargoyle's body trying to decide where to go next. Normally, she would have started the massage with Demona on her stomach and done her back first and then the arms and legs, however, with the wing joints being sensitive that wasn't going to work for her gargoyle lover. Legs next she decided, rising to her knees she crawled backwards until she was at Demona's feet. Laying one hand on the top of a sky blue foot she said, "I need to kneel in between your feet."

The need in Demona's lower belly coiled even tighter at her words and the thought of what her lover would be able to see so clearly once she parted her legs. Silently she moved her legs apart, making room for Kendra to kneel there. She knew how fully she was exposed to her lover's gaze. Demona saw her lover's nostrils flare and her sapphire blue eyes focus on the source of the aroma, "You are beautiful," Kendra whispered and shifted her gaze to meet Demona's eyes.

Demona felt a melting warmth in her chest at the almost worshipful tone of the words and warmth in the blue gaze. Her lips parted and her breath caught in her throat when Kendra leaned forward and her hands went to the top of the gargoyle's thighs. She stifled her moan of disappointment when all Kendra began to do was massage the muscles of her upper leg.

Kendra fought to steady her breath, this was the first time she had seen the gargoyle so intimately. She fought with the desire, subdued it, it wasn't time for that yet, not yet. She continued massaging the well-muscled upper thigh, down across the knee with a gentle touch and then began working on the short calf muscle. She could tell Demona was relaxing into the massage once again, the gargoyle's breathing had steadied into a deep slow rhythm, her eyes were closed and the muscles underneath her hands were relaxed. She glanced over at the steadily burning globe hanging in mid-air, she wasn't certain how Demona was maintaining it, but she was thankful it was there both for the light it gave off and the steady heat it emitted warming the inside of the tent against the cold outside.

She finished massaging the gargoyle's calf and looked at the taloned feet, uncertain of how strong a touch to use, "are your feet ticklish like a human's?" she asked.

Demona forced her eyes open long enough to look at Kendra and shake her head.

Kendra grinned at the completely relaxed response and stroked down Demona's foot. As with the gargoyle's hands, she began massaging it, digging her thumbs into the muscles and using her hands to stretch it with a downward pressure on the top of the foot while lifting the sides with her fingers.

Demona groaned in pleasure as Kendra's hands massaged her feet, it wasn't that they hurt, but the feel of Kendra's firm touch alternately deeply stroking and then stretching out her foot was truly wondrous.

When Kendra finished with one foot she promptly began working on the other leg, massaging down it, giving it exactly the same attention she had given the other. Kendra finished with the gargoyle's second foot, and softly called out "Time to turn over."

Demona muffled a moan of pleasure at the thought of what was to come; she slowly turned over onto her stomach, stretched her wings out and rested them against the floor of the tent.

Kendra knew there were few choices about where to position herself, she could either kneel by the gargoyle's side or straddle her legs. Straddling her legs would be the best position since she wouldn't have to twist awkwardly in order to massage the gargoyle's back. She heard Demona draw in a breath as she moved into the new position, her calves tight against the gargoyles outer thighs.

She started once again with at Demona's shoulders, stroking gently inward until both hands met at the gargoyle's neck. She placed her hands in a prayer position and then stroked firmly down the gargoyles back. She was quite amused to see that Demona's wings quivered slightly as her hands glided between them. As she came closer and closer to Demona's tail, the signs that the gargoyle was anticipating her touch there increased. Kendra cocked her head to the side wondering, there had been clear signs of arousal when she had been near the gargoyle's wings and then Demona's breathing had settled for a few seconds only to increase again the closer she got to Demona's tail. A wicked smile on her lips, Kendra eased up on the pressure of her stroke and made sure to brush close, but not directly against the appendage. She grinned at the soft aggravated sound Demona made as she carefully resisted brushing against her tail.

Demona was becoming more and more certain that Kendra was intent on torturing her, not that she wasn't enjoying it but the slow pace Kendra was setting was becoming maddening. It was unlike her to be so passive, but Kendra's massage and gently exploring hands had relaxed her so much that she felt unwilling to move at the same time as they had aroused her to the point that she was acutely craving Kendra's touch.

Kendra's eyes went to the two large wings looking at the muscular wing arms, keeping her touch light she began close, but not at the wing joint, and carefully massaged her way up the wing arm pausing at the wing talons to give them a brief massage as well. She carefully repeated the process with the other wing, by the time she was finished, the gargoyle's wings hung limply from her back, their weight completely resting upon the floor. It was definitely time to remind Demona that this massage wasn't entirely about relaxation, Kendra thought as she looked down at her relaxed lover with a smile. Starting from the wing talons, Kendra gently caressed gently and slowly back down the wing arms toward the wing joints. Kendra remembered very well the careful way Demona had gently caressed her wing joints out by the cliff. "Let me know if anything feels uncomfortable," she whispered just before she stroked across where the wing joined into the gargoyles back.

Demona arched into her touch and gasped out a strangled, "Yes," as Kendra touched her wing joints. The massage and gentle stroking touches had made her skin feel hypersensitive, and this first soft caress on a truly sensitive part of her body felt almost too pleasurable she was so aware of it.

Though Kendra had been expecting a reaction, the strength of Demona's response surprised her. Kendra drew in an unsteady breath, she had rather successfully been keeping her own need under control up until this point, but the sounds Demona was making were rapidly changing that. She finished stroking down the top of the wing joints and then curved her hands around their lower edge and stroked back up the underside of the joint. Kendra closed her eyes concentrating on the feeling of touching her lover and listening to the increasingly aroused sounds Demona was making. "I think this area must be more sensitive than even your breasts," she whispered to the gargoyle as she began gentle circular motions with her fingers along the top of the wing joints.

Through her pleasure, Demona heard the words; she drew in an unsteady breath, "before tonight I would have thought they were equally as sensitive." She felt the warm press of skin against her tail and buttocks as Kendra lowered her body, and then she felt a warm breath across her back just before soft lips joined the gentle stroking fingers. "Dragon," she uttered as she instinctively arched her back and lifted her rear to increase the contact between them. She felt Kendra inhale sharply and then more of her lover's weight pressed briefly and satisfyingly against her before she felt Kendra shift and lift away from her.

"If you want I'll be happy to give you something to judge that by," Kendra whispered huskily, "if you kneel I can touch both."

It took a few seconds for Demona's mind to piece together what Kendra meant, and when she did she had to swallow against a suddenly dry throat. Careful of her knee spurs, Demona rose from where she had been lying on her stomach and knelt upon the sleeping bag. She felt Kendra move and kneel right behind her, then her lovers arms were around her pulling her against Kendra's warm body behind her. Demona could feel the soft press of Kendra's breasts against her wing joints, she breathed out a long sigh at the feel and then a louder moan when the black-haired woman's teeth found and began nipping along the top of her shoulder.

"Oh Demona," Kendra whispered as she slid her mouth up the gargoyles neck, Demona leaned her head to the side giving her complete access, "so beautiful, so desirable, I wish you could know how much I want you, how much I…" Kendra inhaled sharply, stopping herself from saying the word. It was too soon, no matter how much her heart ached for the gargoyle it was too soon to say that word.

Demona's eyes opened in surprise, she could guess what the black-haired woman had been about to say, Kendra's arms tightened fiercely around her to the point of discomfort before they loosened again. She could feel her lover bury her face into her hair and then Kendra was moving away. Before the gargoyle could protest, she felt soft lips brush against her wing joints and Kendra's hands were slipping up under her wings. Demona's wings flared and trembled and her body quivered in response to the dual stimulation. After a minute or so of the delicious torture, she threw up her head and let out a screeching yowl. Drawing in a breath she pleaded, "Kendra, oh Kendra," Demona didn't know quite what she was pleading for; she certainly didn't want her lover to stop what she was currently doing. There was an answering rumbling growl from Kendra that vibrated against the sensitive skin of her wing joint, and suddenly Demona knew exactly what she wanted.

"Kendra, please I need you now," Demona begged softly, she felt her lover still and then she heard her groan.

"I want to taste you," Kendra said her voice low with desire.

Demona moaned at her words. Neither Thailog nor Goliath had ever done that for her. It seemed to be almost no time before she was lying down upon the sleeping bag, Kendra hovering over her, the woman's blue eyes dark and hooded with desire. Her midnight black hair hung down around her face, and the muscles of her arms stood out in relief in the dim reddish light as she supported her weight upon them. Kendra lowered herself, bringing up a knee to help support her weight, their lips met in a long slow kiss. When their lips parted, Demona opened her eyes and looked up into her lover's sapphire blue ones; it had been so long since she had seen such tenderness, warmth and desire in another's gaze for her.

Later…….

Kendra crawled back up the gargoyle's body and careful to not lean upon a wing, pressed a soft kiss upon the blue skin of Demona's shoulder. "Thirsty?" she inquired. The gargoyle nodded silently and the black-haired woman sat up, looking around for the water bottles they stored inside the tent to keep the water from freezing so easily. She retrieved it, and handed it to the gargoyle who rose up enough to lean on one elbow as she took the container and drank from it thirstily.

Demona returned it much lighter, and as Kendra was taking a few sips from it, the gargoyle looked down at the sleeping bag underneath her. "Damn," she said as she saw the punctures in the fabric her talons had made.

"What?" Kendra's asked, concerned.

Demona indicated the punctures, "it was either this or you," she explained bluntly.

Kendra eyed the punctures and then looked at her lover, she smirked, "thanks for choosing the sleeping bag."

The flame haired gargoyle returned the smile, "You're welcome." Then more seriously she said, "thank you, I…" her voice trailed off briefly before she continued, "I've never had anyone touch me that way before," she admitted softly.

Kendra frowned slightly not certain right away what Demona meant, "you've never had anyone go down on you?" she guessed.

Demona shook her head, "No, not before tonight."

A flicker of surprise showed in the sapphire blue eyes before Kendra replied with a slow smile, "I trust you enjoyed it?"

The gargoyle smirked, "you didn't get that idea already?"

"I just like to make sure I don't disappoint," Kendra grinned, her white teeth showing between her lips.

"Oh you didn't," Demona assured her on an exhale as she remembered how Kendra's mouth had felt upon her.

Kendra smiled at the reply, pleased, "come here I want to hold you," she requested with a meaningful tap of her shoulder. Demona sat up and moved her wing out of the way and then laid back down, her body pressed against Kendra's and her head upon the woman's shoulder. Kendra wrapped her arms around the gargoyle and pressed her cheek against the fiery hair. "I like showing you how much I care about you, how much I like pleasing you," she whispered quietly, quite serious now.

Demona felt relaxed and contented with Kendra's arms around her, her lover's words, however, reminded her that there was something just as pleasant that she should be doing rather soon. She looked over at the burning globe and altered her sight, there was still plenty of nature energy swirling around to supply it she saw with satisfaction. "Let me up," she requested softly. Kendra's arms immediately released her and the gargoyle sat up and then straddled her lover. She looked down at the woman at the black silky hair pooled underneath her head, the olive skin that had a dark ruddy tint in the reddish light of the burning globe. She looked into Kendra's questioning blue eyes, she lowered her head met the full soft lips and whispered against them, "I want to please you as much as you just pleased me."


	22. Chapter 22

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 22**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: minor squick warning.

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/25/08

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Dominique awoke reluctantly; a whispered, "I'll shower and then get breakfast ready for us," and the warm press of lips upon hers informed her what had disturbed her sleep. The redhead smiled and opened her eyes, looked up toward the opening of the tent in time to see Kendra zipping it closed again behind her. It was very bright inside the tent, indicating that the sun had risen some time ago and she wondered just how late they had slept in today.

Of course, they hadn't gotten to sleep until very late indeed, the redhead thought with a smirk as she arched her back and raised her arms above her head in a long luxurious stretch. Once she was done, she relaxed once again her arms above her head in the cool winter air, and the rest of her body cocooned in the warmth of the sleeping bag. For a long moment she simply breathed in and out quietly, enjoying the fact that she was alive on this fine morning. She could hear the wind moving through the pine boughs and the sound of a few birds chirping and singing; she could also hear the sound of a propane heater and water from where Kendra was showering.

A shiver and a tingle ran through Dominique's body as she remembered the night and the hours of lovemaking they had indulged in, by the end of the night Kendra had indeed found every sensitive place upon her body. They had been so exhausted by the time they stopped that Demona had transformed into her human form before falling asleep to make sure that she didn't accidentally trap her lover if she failed to wake up and went into stone sleep. She sighed and tucked her arms, which were getting chilled, back into the sleeping bag debating on whether or not to just go back to sleep until Kendra woke her for breakfast. Her stomach chose that moment to rumble demandingly at her, informing her in no uncertain terms that it had been entirely too long since she had last eaten. She groaned protesting, not really feeling like getting up, but if she wanted breakfast sooner she knew she needed to get up and help Kendra prepare it.

Two hours and some minutes later they had both showered, eaten, cleaned up the dishes from breakfast, stopped by the pine tree to see how its injuries were healing, and were now sitting idly by the fire. Dominique shifted restlessly; she wasn't used to having nothing to occupy her time. They couldn't go gliding there was too much of a chance that a rescue plane might fly over and see them in the air, and the concealment of night would not come for five more hours. She glanced over at Kendra; the black-haired woman was sitting in a patch of sunlight her eyes closed and a peaceful, almost meditative look upon her face. The redhead smirked, at the moment her lover's jaguarness was definitely apparent.

She glanced at the forest around them searching for something to occupy her time. If she only knew more about trees and plants she thought wistfully, looking at the variety of evergreens around her. Not all of the trees were pines, Dominique knew enough about them to identify spruces, junipers and the odd cedar among the trees she could see from where she was sitting. Unfortunately, except for what the Irish Elk had told her about how trees healed, recognizing the different species was about the extent of her knowledge. Being able to see life energy did not magically give her any understanding of what she was seeing, so watching the life energy in the trees was quickly becoming rather frustrating because of her lack of knowledge.

It wasn't that she hadn't picked up a basic understanding of biology, chemistry and physics, because she had, if only so that she understood what her researchers were writing in their weekly progress reports. This type of specific knowledge though, she had never had a need to learn before now. At least that was one useful side effect of the human's need to name and understand things, Dominique thought. Their species had made much progress in understanding how the world around them worked; all she needed was have access to all that knowledge to get a better understanding of what she was seeing. Unfortunately for her current boredom, however, none of it was available to her right now.

With one last annoyed look at the forest for not providing her any distractions, she glanced back over at her lover and thought about their return to New York in three days. She smirked, she would bet on the fact that the clan would be amazed to see them both return. Doubtless they had assumed that she would either kill Kendra or leave her behind to fend for herself, and they couldn't be further from the truth. The smirk disappeared and a regretful look replaced it as she thought about one particular member of the clan whose opinion was more important to her than the rest. Her deception with the Assassin probably meant that the clan was now unanimous in their opinions of her. She gazed at her lover's peaceful face, perhaps when they both returned Angela would be curious enough to keep find out what her mother was doing, see the changes she was making in her life.

Thoughts of the clan brought up thoughts of their and the Detectives inevitable attempt to contact Kendra and what they might tell her about the past. Dominique grimaced ruefully; it was truly pitiful that she was so bored that she would consider a discussion with Kendra about her mistakes with the clan to be an acceptable distraction. She had told Kendra almost everything she thought the clan would bring up in an effort to drive the black-haired woman away from her, but there was one incident she hadn't mentioned that one clan member might bring up. She hated interrupted Kendra's doze, but this lack of anything to do was driving her crazy. She cleared her throat, her lover's sapphire blue eyes opened and focused upon her.

Dominique said, "Since we have nothing to do for the next five hours but fix dinner, I thought now might be a good time to tell you why Brooklyn of all the clan members hates me the most, and is least likely to forgive me for my past actions," she noticed she had Kendra's complete attention. "I don't know that he will bring up how I betrayed the trust that had been between us, but he might." She paused, her thoughts going to the distant past.

"Who is Brooklyn? I've heard the name before, but I don't know which one that is," asked Kendra remembering the one detective mentioning that the gargoyle blamed Demona for everything that went wrong.

The redhead looked over at her, surprised; she hadn't realized that she hadn't described the clan to the black-haired woman. "Have you seen any of them?" she asked hoping that Kendra had, it would make it so much easier.

Kendra responded, "I've seen pictures of them as they left the police station clock tower after my stupid cousins attacked it." She shook her head bringing her thoughts back to Dominique's question, "One picture had a large light lavender male who I suspect is Goliath," she paused as the redhead nodded.

"Goliath is light lavender and the largest of all the males," Dominique confirmed.

"Behind him was a lavender female who I'm sure is your daughter Angela," Kendra continued, barely pausing to acknowledge the redheads confirming nod before continuing, "then were was another picture of a white-haired red colored male with a beak…"

"That's Brooklyn," interrupted Dominique.

The black-haired woman nodded thoughtfully, setting his appearance in her mind, "he was carrying a smaller greenish colored male in his arms," she continued.

Dominique said, "Lexington, and from what I've heard he's adapted very well to this time. He has an unusual gift with understanding modern machinery and likes computers."

"Interesting," said Kendra, thinking of how bizarre the gargoyles must have found modern life after being asleep for nine hundred years, the world was so different now compared to what they had known. She brought her thoughts back to the one remaining picture her cousin Jon had sent her, "The last picture was of two gargoyles, one of which was carrying what looked more like a gargoyle dog than anything else and had no wings."

"Broadway, Hudson and Bronx," said the redhead, "Broadway is aqua colored and overweight, Hudson is the former clan leader and Bronx is a gargbeast. That's the entire clan that's left from Wyvern except for the young gargoyles on Avalon," she said sadly.

She shook herself, forcing her mind off that guilt-ridden thought and onto the original subject of their conversation. "To understand why Brooklyn felt so betrayed by what I did I need to tell you about the relationship he and I had at Castle Wyvern while he was growing from a young hatchling into one of the best warriors of his rookery hatching. Neither he nor I had names then, but I saw in the red beaked young male so much of myself. He had a temper to match mine, he was impetuous and impassioned, and even as young as he was he had the makings of a fine warrior."

"So you decided to mentor him," Kendra guessed.

Dominique nodded, "I taught him how to fight on the ground and in the air. How to dodge the arrows we would often face from the castle's attackers. Whenever he had a question I was the elder he brought it to, when he and the other two young males he was always with practiced I watched and corrected any mistakes. Whenever he did something right it was my approval he looked for first even before Goliath's."

The redhead's lips narrowed in anger at herself as she remembered what she had thrown away, "From the time he left the rookery until the Magus cast his spell on him I was the elder that he sought out the most frequently and I was the one that he trusted the most after Goliath. So when I learned of a spell in the Grimorum Arcanaum that I could use to control Goliath's mind, I knew immediately whom I could use to bring my former mate to me. I knew that Brooklyn would still listen to me despite the fact that I had attacked the clan a few days earlier."

Kendra wanted to ask about the earlier attack, but she didn't want to sidetrack Dominique so she filed the information away for later and simply listened.

"I watched the trio for several nights in a row while they worked on putting together a motorbike in one of Xanatos's garages. Or rather I should say Lexington did, that's how I learned about his gift. It's almost magical how he's able to understand how machines work without any training and only minimal access to manuals." Demona still remembered staring at the trio in astonishment as she watched the young web winged male who she knew had never seen modern machines until a week ago, make a working motorbike from one wrecked one they had found and spare parts.

I followed him as he went on his first motorbike ride, and when he found a motorbike gang and approached them, I waited, suspecting they would attack him as soon as they realized he wasn't another human. When they did I helped him fight them off, it was enough for me to persuade him to listen to me. I took him around the city and pointed out the worst human actions I could find as evidence of why Goliath's dream of humans accepting us was not possible." She gave Kendra an apologetic look.

"It's alright," Kendra reassured her, "New York City has enough crime to jade even the most optimistic optimist. I imagine it wasn't hard for you to shock him, though one would think he had seen humans killing and mistreating each other before. I would think humanity really hasn't changed that much in a thousand years."

"True," Dominique acknowledged, "but he was still reeling from all the changes in the world since he had been turned into stone by the Magus. He had been resentful of the humans at Castle Wyvern and doubtful that they would ever change their ways and come to accept us as Goliath hoped, so I knew it would be easy to persuade him that these new humans weren't any different. I told him there was a spell in the Grimorum I could use to make Goliath listen to me and had him steal the book from Xanatos's collection and bring it to me."

She went on to describe how Brooklyn had brought Goliath to her at the Cloisters, how once the spell had been cast and Goliath was turned into a mindless slave that Brooklyn had fought with her. He managed to take back the Grimorum, but not before Demona ripped the counter spell from the Grimorum and destroyed it. With the book in his possession, Brooklyn controlled Goliath's actions and he had ordered his clan leader back to the Castle. There Elisa Maza had the idea to command Goliath to act as if he were not under the spell's control breaking its hold on him.

"The Weird Sisters strike again," said Kendra noted bitterly after the redhead had stopped speaking. "In one fell swoop you knocked yourself off the pedestal Brooklyn had you upon, abused his trust of you and used him against his clan leader, guaranteeing that he wouldn't trust you or want anything to do with you anytime soon."

Dominique stared at her, she hadn't thought about her actions in light of what she had learned so recently. "I hadn't considered it," she admitted, beginning to feel the stinging pain of yet another loss the three Fey had caused her.

"Oh come on," Kendra protested thinking the look on Dominique's face meant that the redhead didn't believe her, "Brooklyn immediately realized what you had done to Goliath, so unless the other gargoyles are really dense they would have noticed the same thing as soon as they saw him. I don't think your actual objective in doing that was getting control of the clan because you had to have known that it had zero chance of succeeding." Dominique was still looking stunned so Kendra continued, "If however you were driving Brooklyn away from you then it succeeded admirably," she finished softly.

The redhead drew in a shuddering breath and it occurred belatedly to the black-haired woman that what she had seen on Dominique's face hadn't been stunned disbelief but stunned pain. "Oh hell," Kendra cursed herself, "I'm sorry Demona, I should have found a better way to say that I didn't mean to hurt you," she said regretfully. She got up and went over to the lost looking woman, hesitantly placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder.

Dominique looked up at her, waved a dismissive hand, "It's alright I just haven't thought about that night in a long time, and not since I found out about that enchantment. I guess it's just something else that I have to add to the list of injuries those three have caused me over the centuries."

Kendra sat down next to Dominique and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Surely there must have been some bright spots in the last thousand years?" she asked hesitantly hoping that that was indeed the case because she wanted to distract the redhead from dwelling on the incident with Brooklyn.

The redhead looked thoughtful, after three solid days of such revelations she was only too eager to find a distraction from this last one, "Well there was a human in the early 1500's that I called a friend, Michel de Nostradame." When Kendra looked startled she grinned, "Yes, Nostradamus, he had a foreseeing of Xanatos would raising the castle above the clouds and break the enchantment on the clan. That's how I knew to come here and look for Xanatos in 1993."

"You knew Nostradamus," Kendra questioned disbelievingly.

Dominique chuckled enjoying the awed look in Kendra's eyes, "I think I just said that didn't I?" she teased. She began telling the tale of the human who had found her sick with the Black Plague and had nursed her back to health in his own home, and of how that meeting had turned into a friendship that lasted until his death.

Later that night they were gliding back to the camp, Kendra's new claws had performed very well, slicing into the limestone of the cliff with much less effort than the night before. They had practiced taking off from the cliff and then gliding around in a circle to land once again near it before climbing back up and repeating the process. With each landing, Kendra improved her technique until Demona announced herself satisfied, though the look in her eye promised several more training sessions.

"I never thought I'd get tired of eating one type of meat," Demona commented staring down at the pan cooked caribou steak on her plate. "Right now though I'd really like some chicken or fish," she said wistfully, "I've gotten spoiled by modern grocery stores."

Kendra chuckled, "I can't say that I'm tired of it, but I wouldn't turn down some cow or pork about now. Luckily we only have tomorrow to make it through and then the next night we will be at Rachael's." She stifled a yawn, "By the way how long do you think tonight will take?"

Demona shrugged, "I don't know. I'm not certain what all the Ancient One has planned for us to do tonight." Looking at the tired countenance of her lover, she hoped it wouldn't be that late, Kendra wasn't the only one feeling fatigued tonight. "Are you coming to the spirit realm tonight?" she asked.

The black-haired woman nodded, "Just for a little while to see if Rachael or Wayne shows up," she grinned, "otherwise I'll just make sure you stay warm while you're working."

The flame-haired gargoyle smiled in reply, "I just don't want to think of you being bored," her voice trailed off and she looked uncomfortable, reminded of just why Kendra wasn't accompanying her tonight.

"It's alright," Kendra assured her gently, "I understand."

The gargoyle looked at her searchingly, seeing reassurance in her lover's blue eyes she nodded.

Only the Ancient One was waiting for them when they entered the spirit realm, "Ancient One," Demona greeted the great stag. She looked over at her lover, her thoughts racing, she didn't really want to do this alone, but she didn't want Kendra to see how she had acted that night.

"My chosen," he returned her greeting.

"Ancient One," Kendra greeted him as well. "I guess nothing significant has happened that we need to know about," she commented.

"Indeed," commented the great stag calmly, "Will you be accompanying us young jaguar?"

Kendra shook her head, "No not tonight," she answered.

"Wait," Demona blurted.

Confused blue eyes turned her way, "What?" Kendra asked, crease forming between her brows as she frowned.

The gargoyle turned toward the Irish Elk spirit, "Were the weird sisters present when I was killing the humans?" she asked her eyes sliding uneasily away from his great brown ones in her shame.

"They were not chosen," he replied calmly.

Demona breathed in a sigh of relief; she turned to Kendra, "Would you like to go with us?"

The frown on Kendra's face smoothed as she realized why Demona had asked the Ancient One that question, "Of course, maybe together we can make some sense of their actions."

That is something to be desired," commented the Irish Elk in a dry tone that had both of them glancing with questioning looks at the spirit. "These particular Fey delight in obscuring their motives with cryptic utterances at any time," the land around them changed and they were standing inside a room, a large vault door stood wide open along one wall. Goliath stood motionless next to three men tied up inside what looked like money transfer bags and a woman with short dark hair that was kneeling and looking up at the stern looking gargoyle with fear. The spirit continued, "During these events they were more cryptic and obscure than usual."

Kendra looked around at the frozen people in fascination for a moment before she turned back to the spirit, "So your saying trying to figure this out is giving you a headache?" she said with a slight smile.

Great stag turned his head and regarded her for a moment, his ears flipped back and forth once before he responded, "if such a thing were possible for me I would undoubtedly have one."

Demona, who had been paying the familiar looking three girls standing along the wall more attention that the stag spirit and her lover, looked over at this comment and smiled at their bantering. She turned her attention to the window and looked out at the multitude of police cars outside the building, their motionless lights casting a red glare over everything. "A hostage situation?" she asked, returning her attention to the room.

"Correct, chosen," said the Irish Elk.

Suddenly the scene around them came to life, "We will go now. The police can deal with them," announced Goliath turning and leaving the four humans.

Kendra watched the gargoyles with interest, able to identify now the four males as Goliath, Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington. Seeing them in real life, as it were, instead of two-dimensional pictures was much different. She had a better sense of their size and evident strength. It helped her understand why so many people seemed to be afraid of them, she glanced over at the smaller green male, well at least most of them, she corrected herself.

"The cause is everything until her own life is threatened," the dark haired girl in what looked almost like a school uniform came forward and said to Goliath as he passed the three. "Still it's good that you saved her."

"If you forgot what she's forgotten, that every life is precious. Then you'll be no different from her," said the blonde one.

Demona choked, her eyes flashed red in anger as she stared at the three unable to believe that they had the gall to say such things after everything they had done to Macbeth and her. The gargoyle was so angry that she almost missed Goliath's answer. "I'll never be like this terrorist," he said indignantly.

"We were not talking about this terrorist," the white haired one corrected him. Demona scowled at them, though she could not disagree with the title they had just given her considering what she had done later this night.

Goliath turned around to stare at the now cowed looking woman next to the three bound men. The Weird Sisters took the opportunity to disappear so that when he turned back the looked around in vain for them asking where they had went.

The scene froze with the four gargoyles trying to figure out what they had seen and the two human hostages in the room telling them there had never been any children there. Demona even recognized the two humans, Brendan and Margot Yale, she shook her head, the Assistant District Attorney had a definite gift for running into the clan considering how big the city was and how many humans were in it.

"Considering their own actions it's more than slightly ironic to hear such sentiments from these three," noted Kendra dryly. "What are they playing at? They have absolutely no respect for mortal lives so this has some purpose behind it that serves their own selfish interests."

Demona had no idea herself, her memories of the time in between her fight with the clan and Macbeth and the restored memories the stag had given her were chaotic. She remembered what the Weird Sisters had said to her to get her to reveal the new password and her anger at being tricked, then nothing until her memories from the time she was controlled by the three Fey began.

The Ancient one shook his great antlered head, "I am not certain besides the fact that such sentiments caused Goliath to prevent Macbeth from taking his and Demona's life while she was unconscious."

The gargoyle's green eyes widened, she had no idea that Macbeth had come so close to getting his wish that day.

Kendra said thoughtfully, "I don't usually advocate reading the end of the book first, but in this case I think it might help us understand what's going on better."

The scene around them changed as soon as she finished speaking, they were standing beside a large indoor pool in the center of a carefully landscaped garden. A wide walkway was suspended along the sides of the atrium like area; one part of the walkway went through the center of the area, suspended above the large pool in the center. The walls of the building on this level were solid glass with large pylons along the outside to support the weight of this floor. They stood on the center span of the walkway, stairs leading down on either side to the center section that crossed over the pool. The center section was covered with concrete debris, the figures of Demona and Macbeth lying among them.

"Macbeth threw down a grenade that melted the floor," said Demona pointing to the ceiling far above them. "I remember falling through the air, Macbeth was holding onto me preventing me from being able to glide."

Macbeth rose first, he looked down upon the unconscious gargoyle and an expression of rage crossed his face. He picked Demona up in his arms; her wings hung limply, dragging along the ground as he walked over toward one piece of debris that had broken off pipes sticking up from it.

A low threatening growl, drew Demona's attention from the scene to her lover, Kendra was glaring at the scene her blue eyes narrowed. The gargoyle placed one hand on her forearm; the black-haired woman's head swung her way, the blue eyes instantly softened and the growl stopped. "I'm right here, not there," Demona reminded her gently. Kendra nodded once and turned her attention back to the scene below. The gargoyle stared at her strong profile for a second, taking in the straight nose and strong jaw and chin, her lips curved in a small smile, warmed by the protectiveness her lover displayed for her.

Her turned her eyes away from her lover, intending to watch the scene below, but the Ancient One, who was regarding them with keen interest, caught her attention. His gaze was upon her taloned hand resting so comfortably on Kendra's arm and she could almost hear the thoughts in his mind, not your young jaguar indeed.

No!" shouted Goliath drawing her attention firmly to what was happening below them, "Killing her won't solve anything."

Demona blanched to see herself helpless and unconscious in Macbeth's arms her body suspended above the sharp end of a broken pipe. How close her old ally had come, all Macbeth had to do was release her body and they would have both died.

"Death never does," finished Goliath.

Macbeth hesitated at the lavender males words looking uncertain, and then the three Weird Sisters appeared. They were adults now and looked completely modern in their three-inch heels, purple hose, very short skirts and midriff baring jackets. "He's right Macbeth, Duncan was afraid that your father would make you king," said one of them.

Luna continued, "Did your father's death stop you from becoming king?"

Macbeth turned toward them, "No," he answered angrily.

"You wanted revenge for your father. Did Gillecomigan's death settle that score?" asked Selene.

"No," Macbeth answered his tone not angry this time but resigned.

"Did your own death save your son Luach from Canmore," asked the blonde sister.

"No," whispered Macbeth looking defeated.

"Death is never the answer," Goliath said to him his hands raised in supplication, "Life is."

Demona snorted and shook her head, there her former mate was playing the part the sisters gave him perfectly, not that she didn't appreciate still being alive right now instead of dying almost a year ago.

"I'm just so tired," said Macbeth lowering the unconscious Demona to the ground and backing away.

The Weird Sisters gathered around him, "Then sleep Macbeth," they said in unison. A second later Macbeth slumped to the floor unconscious.

Kendra watched silently as the Sisters manipulated Demona into giving Goliath the access code, alone. Her eyes narrowed and a wave of rage and revulsion washed over her as she saw the tears in Demona's eyes as the gargoyle said the access code. She had never hated anyone as she hated these three callous Fey; if they ever came within range of her claws they were dead.

Demona shook her head sadly as she watched herself rage that she had been tricked, that none of what occurred was her fault, it was the humans were responsible for everything. Not that she had been entirely wrong then given what the Magus had done, but a share of the blame for what had happened at Castle Wyvern definitely rested upon her own shoulders.

"You have learned nothing," said Goliath sadly.

The Demona below hissed at him, "Nothing but your lies." She flared her wings, "I will still have my revenge!"

The Weird Sisters, once again appearing as children, restrained the gargoyle who looked amazed that they could hold her. "You are tired," Luna bade her, "sleep." The Demona below wavered, closed her eyes and slumped to the flagstones of the walkway near Macbeth's slumbering body.

"What do we do with them?" Goliath asked scratching the top of his head.

"We have written their stories. They are our responsibility. They are our children," said the Weird Sisters as they took up points around Demona and Macbeth.

Demona snarled, "At least their acknowledging their responsibility for what they did to us, but Macbeth and I are not their children."

The Ancient One let the scene play out as he spoke, "No you are not, nor are you under their control any longer chosen." The scene froze right after the Weird Sisters disappeared, taking Demona and Macbeth with them.

Kendra eyed the spot on the walkway where everything had taken place, there were a few things about what she had seen that were bothering her, "Ok so they set Goliath up to help persuade Macbeth not to kill Demona, that's easy to see. What I don't understand is why go through all that effort? Since they had their hooks into both of them already why didn't they just take Macbeth and Demona whenever they wanted without all this drama?" she waved a hand to indicate everything around them.

"That is a source of puzzlement to me as well young jaguar," admitted the great stag spirit.

Demona looked over at her lover, startled by her words. Kendra was right, why had the three Fey gone through all this effort when they could have taken them at any time. She stared at the walkway spanning the pool thoughtfully, if she were evaluating the moves of a business rival she would be asking herself what the rival had to gain by their actions. "What did they have to gain by doing this?" she asked herself aloud.

"Exactly," responded Kendra, "They must have gotten something out of it."

The three of them stared at one another silently, Demona sighed, "I guess that means none of us has an idea what they had to gain. Maybe if we go back to the beginning and watch their actions something will make sense?"

The stag spirit dipped his head and they were standing upon the street, a siren wailed behind them, but Demona's attention was upon the three Fey who stood watching a bank of televisions inside a store window. "Isn't this exciting Luna it begins again," Phoebe said.

They began walking down the street, "Concentrate sister or it ends here as well," said Selene.

"Phoebe, Selene have patience, we have waited 975 years, we can wait a little longer," commented Luna.

The scene around them froze, Kendra offered, "It begins again, I guess they mean that things are happening again that will lead to them meeting up with the Archmage? He did tell them it would be another 975 years last time they spoke."

Demona nodded, "That would be my guess as well."

"Those were my thoughts as well," said the Irish Elk. In the next moment they stood in the middle of a street, it was nighttime and in the direction they were facing they could see the silhouettes of two gargoyles approaching.

Demona drew in a sharp breath, her heart actually seemed to skip a beat as she turned around in horror and looked upon the shattered human forms. This was not something she had wanted Kendra to see; at least the Demona of this time was already gone.

Her attention drawn by the distressed sound, Kendra looked over at her lover, she hadn't thought it possible for the gargoyle to pale, but Demona's face looked pale right now. She turned following the gargoyle's gaze and saw what had disturbed her so greatly, piles of rubble upon the street and on either sidewalk. No there were some pieces of people still standing she saw that had not been completely destroyed, a set of legs, a woman without any arms. They must have surely died when the spell that made them stone was broken, Kendra thought. She heard two thumps behind her and turned back around; the silhouettes had been Goliath and Brooklyn, the thumps the sound of them landing upon the street.

The two gargoyles stared appalled at what they saw. "It's like the massacre at Castle Wyvern," said Brooklyn quietly.

"Has Demona learned nothing," Goliath said his voice full of anger and sorrow, "every life is precious," he said, repeating the words of the three Weird Sisters while staring down at a pile of rubble that had once been a human. His attention drawn by something in a toy store doorway he walked over and crouched down. Kendra followed; he was looking at three statues that she immediately recognized as the three Weird Sisters still in the form of children. Oddly, they held dolls in their arms.

"Demona, over here," she said getting the gargoyles attention and pointing out what Goliath was staring at.

"One of these could be Elisa," said Brooklyn taking a handful of rubble.

"Never," growled Goliath, turning to look at him. The huge lavender gargoyle rose, anger clear upon his face, "We will put an end to Demona's evil, once and for all," he vowed.

"Yes she must be stopped," Kendra turned to look at the three statues whose eyes were open now showing a strange blue light, "but remember your own words Goliath. Every life is precious; take care not to become what you fight against. Vengeance begets nothing but a vicious cycle of further vengeance."

Kendra turned away from the talking statues to stare at the piles of rubble on the street; there was something important here some connection that her mind wanted to make. She heard the two gargoyles continue down the street, but she ignored them, kneeling down and picking up a piece of rubble and turning it over. It was a nose and mouth, she ran an inquisitive finger over it and then it came to her, the connection she had wanted to make. "It's so easy isn't it," she said meditatively, "no blood, no gore, no pleas, no begging, no tears. The last man I chased down that night in Central Park he fell and tried to scramble away on all fours. He cried out 'no, no, please don't hurt me,' but his pleas didn't mean anything to me, I killed him anyway.

"Kendra," the gargoyles voice sounded torn, and Kendra felt the weight of her hand upon her shoulder.

She continued, her voice remorseless, "When I changed back I was covered in the blood of the four men who had attacked me. I went over to the bushes and threw up until there was nothing left inside me. It was bloody, it smelled, and there was no way I would have reached into what was left of one of them to pick a piece of them up." She rose, turned toward Demona and the great stag with the piece of stone face in her outstretched hand. She looked into Demona's green eyes and held out the piece of stone, her face showing her reluctance the gargoyle eventually accepted it. "If that were a piece of flesh, actual lips and nose ripped bleeding from someone's face would you have taken it from me?" she asked calmly.

The gargoyles green eyes widened in shock, the piece of stone fell from her taloned hand and shattered upon the street.

Kendra nodded, "that's what I thought," she said evenly.

Demona stared at Kendra still shocked by the black-haired woman's question; it took a few moments for her to realize that the blue eyes didn't hold condemnation but compassion and understanding. She stared down at the small pieces of rubble that had been the fragment of face Kendra had handed to her, and then she looked up and down the street at the piles of rubble.

"If they had been flesh, if they had been able to plead for their lives would you have killed them?" Kendra asked her, "You must have flown over these streets nightly, why this night and not another?"

The flame haired gargoyle took in a shaky breath as she looked down the street at what she had done that night, "I don't know," she said quietly, "perhaps not. I was thinking of the massacre at Wyvern, I wanted to do to the humans what the Vikings had done to us."

Kendra looked up and down the street; she turned and began walking toward the rest of the piles of rubble. Behind her she could hear the sounds of Demona's talons on the pavement and the Ancient One's hooves as they followed her. It didn't take long to get to the end of the piles of rubble, there was only about a block of them. Confused Kendra looked down the side street at the untouched statues and then she turned around and looked back at the single block of destruction. She looked over at the gargoyle, a slight frown upon her face, "Why did you stop?"

Of anything she could have asked that was not a question Demona was expecting.

"I mean," Kendra looked back down the street, "You must have been dreaming of something like this for quite awhile. Yet when you had the chance you," she started counting the piles along the street, "you only killed sixteen or so people."

Slowly the gargoyle turned up the street in the direction she had been smashing the humans that night and looked at the frozen forms of the two humans that had jarred her out of her thoughts of vengeance.

Kendra followed the gargoyle's gaze and her eyes fell upon the statues of a mother and teenage daughter, the mother was well dressed in a tailored suit, her long hair caught back in a braid, the daughter had been caught smiling up at her mother, her face innocent and carefree. Looking at the daughter, her long hair caught back in a simple ponytail, Kendra guessed immediately what must have happened, "She reminded you of Angela," she stated with certainty.

Demona nodded, pensively staring at the two stone humans, "I decided to go and make sure Xanatos didn't shut off my transmission instead of smashing any more of the humans."

Kendra glanced at the stone woman and her daughter one last time before turning to the great stag, "Is that the last of the Weird Sister's appearances?" she asked him.

"No," there is one other one, he responded. Their location shifted to the inside of a building, police in the blue uniforms were moving all around them. "Someone tell me please what happened?" the voice drew Kendra's attention she looked over to see a man surrounded by three female police officers. No, the Weird Sisters she realized looking at them closer.

"Don't worry sir, we're here to help," Phoebe said.

Kendra shook her head, "What are they doing here?" she asked.

"This is the 23rd Precinct building, Maza's precinct," Demona realized looking around the room.

"They were keeping tabs on her?" Kendra questioned, sounding puzzled.

There was chaos around them; several people were demanding that the police tell them what had happened during the night. When Kendra turned around to look at the three Fey, they had disappeared. "Was this the last time?" she raised her voice to be heard over the din of noise inside the station.

The Irish Elk dipped his head, "It is," his deep voice cut easily through the noise.

"Then can we go back to the first sighting?" Kendra asked. She breathed a sigh of relief at the quiet when they reappeared in the room with the four terrorists and the three Fey posing as children.

"What are you thinking?" Demona asked, intrigued, stepping up next to the black-haired woman as she stared at the three motionless Fey.

"I'm wondering how they knew to be here. How they knew they would need to make sure Goliath stopped Macbeth from killing you. How they knew you would do something that Goliath would get so angry about that he would be tempted to not stop Macbeth," Kendra responded.

Demona's eyes widened slightly as she met Kendra's gaze, her gaze sharpened and she turned to look at the three Fey with narrowed eyes. "Your right that does imply that they had some knowledge of what I was going to do and that Macbeth was going to play the Hunter this night. They didn't want their toys to kill each other before they had the chance to use them on Avalon," she finished bitterly.

Kendra turned to the Ancient One, "Did they leave Avalon at any other time just prior to this? Or did they have a means like the Archmage used in the pool to watch events here?"

He dipped his great antlered head, "They had the same means, and they did spend much of their time watching the actions of Demona and Macbeth. Though they were not on Avalon at this time as Oberon's decree that all Fey were banished from Avalon until he decided otherwise prevented them from setting foot on that isle. It was only under the guise of assisting the Archmage that they were able to bend that decree for a short time."

The black-haired woman nodded thoughtfully, adding this piece of information to the ones she already had about the Fey. "Do you know if they had anything to do with Macbeth or Demona a few months or so before they showed up here?"

"You are wondering if they had anything to do with manipulating these events?" the Irish Elk spirit asked shrewdly.

"It did occur to me," Kendra admitted. She turned toward Demona, "When did you find out about the spell that you used this night?"

"A few months earlier," the gargoyle answered thoughtfully, "I found out about a spellbook being sold at an estate auction in England and arranged for a buyer to obtain it for me. I wasn't certain the book would be useful, but I've made a habit of obtaining such things over the centuries."

Kendra turned back toward the Ancient One, "did you hear or see them having anything to do with arranging for Demona to find that spellbook?"

The great stag lifted his head, his gaze unfocused as he thought, "Perhaps, they did scry for several spell books just before these events began." Before Demona or Kendra could pounce on that he continued, "However I cannot say for certain that the books they scryed had anything to do with the one my chosen found. I do not recall them discussing anything that would cause me to suspect they were involved in its finding."

Demona snarled softly, "We have more questions than answers, and I can make no sense of their actions with the knowledge we currently have. Kendra's raised an excellent question, why didn't they just take Macbeth and I, their waiting for all of this to play out makes no sense," the gargoyle said turning to the great stag.

Kendra stared at the forms of the three Fey in irritation, Demona was right they didn't have enough knowledge to answer the questions that had been raised by the Weird Sister's actions and statements. "Well there is one thing," she commented amused as she turned toward them, "I now have a headache for the Ancient One since he's unable to have his own."

The Irish Elk snorted and his ears twitched briefly, "That was not the purpose of this night."

Kendra sighed, "Nevertheless that seems to be all we have accomplished."

The scene around them faded into the familiar landscape of the spirit realm, the great stag turned toward Demona, "I do not understand why they did not enchant you and Macbeth earlier," he responded to her earlier statement. "That question had occurred to me previously as well, as had the question of how they knew what was to take place upon that night and how to guard against Macbeth taking both your lives."

"So we accomplished nothing," complained Demona, caping her wings round herself.

The great stag turned to look at her, "I would not agree my chosen. Several things have been accomplished this night. For one you now have knowledge of their actions and events that you did not before." He left unsaid that there might be other things the gargoyle had learned tonight.

Demona met his calm gaze, and thought of Kendra's jarringly blunt statements. Her lover had been right; she would have had a much harder time killing the humans if they had been flesh instead of stone, if they had bled instead of shattered, cried in anguish instead of remaining silent. As it was, her vengeance had proven to be hollower than she had anticipated. The sight of the rubble left by her mace had reminded her of the Wyvern massacre in more than one way, and by the time she had spotted the stone human that reminded her of her daughter she had been fighting to not see the stone remains of her brothers and sisters in each pile she left. That had been one of the reasons for her mocking the humans as she killed them, to remind herself that she was supposed to be enjoying what she was doing, that she had been dreaming of this revenge for centuries. Trying to distract herself from the fact that every pile of rubble only reminded her of every gargoyle she had seen killed this way throughout the centuries. "You are correct Ancient One," she finally replied.

Kendra watched Demona's changing expressions closely, wondering just what was going through the gargoyle's mind. When sadness and regret overshadowed the fine, regal face of her lover and she told the spirit he was correct, Kendra walked over to the gargoyle and gently pulled her into a hug. Demona leaned into Kendra and rested her head against the black-haired woman's.

The Ancient One observed them for a few moments before saying, "tomorrow we will continue our lessons in life and nature magic."

Demona lifted her head, "we are done for tonight?" she asked.

"We are chosen," the Ancient One confirmed.

The gargoyle nodded, relieved, images of piles of rubble haunted her; it had not been an easy night. "Good night then Ancient One." Kendra echoed the sentiment and then they were in the dark tent.

"I'm sorry that I shocked you, I should have probably found a more delicate way make my point," Kendra whispered quietly in the darkness.

"No," replied Demona just as quietly, "I doubt a more gentle way would have made as much of an impression on me. It's probably your gift kicking in and helping you say just what I need to hear," she offered, and the more she thought about it the more likely the idea seemed, "If you're blunt then its only because nothing less would get me to listen."

"Maybe," Kendra responded, her tone doubtful.

They settled down in the sleeping bag, and for once Demona preferred to be held rather than holding, scooting further down so that she could tuck her head underneath Kendra's chin. The gargoyle wasn't certain she could fall asleep; her mind was full of racing thoughts. Kendra began to softly stroke her hair, and Demona was tempted to grumble that she was not some hatchling to be calmed, but she didn't. Right now, the soft stroking on her hair felt too good and soothing to for her to want it to end. She didn't realize how little time it took after that for her breathing to even out in sleep.

Kendra pressed a kiss on the top of the gargoyle's hair and settled down to try and fall asleep herself. Seeing the evidence of what the Magus's power seeking, the Weird Sister's plotting as they sought their vengeance, her own ancestor's murderous actions, and Demona's anger had led to grieved her. Those people hadn't deserved to die anymore than Macbeth and Demona deserved to be targets of the Archmage and Weird Sisters twisted machinations. She had already forgiven the hurting gargoyle in her arms and tonight hadn't changed her feelings on that one bit. If anything, it had solidified her feeling that forgiveness was the right response, but as she had said to Demona before those who died deserved to not be forgotten for they were innocents caught up in the results of the Weird Sisters scheming.


	23. Chapter 23

**Puppet Strings - Chapter 23**

By Kudara

Disclaimer: All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work. All original characters are the property of the author.

Warning: None

Notes: I am giving the Gargoyles universe technology equivalent to today. We cannot build semi truck sized laser weapons and they had laser rifles and pistols. I think it is safe to say that universe has some technology even more advanced than our own today. Nightstone Unlimited's Special Projects Division was introduced in TGS episode Prophets and Angels. Candice, Dominique Destine's personal secretary was introduced in TGS episode Prophets and Angels.

Rating: Teen

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 04/30/08

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The wind howled through the boughs of the trees and slapped the rainfly in an irregular beat against the tent wall. The day was overcast, very windy, and very cold. The two women huddled together with the sleeping bag pulled up almost over their heads. A burning globe of nature energy in the center of the tent kept the interior at a barely tolerable temperature due to the cold wind leaching away the heat as fast as the globe could produce it.

"Less than one day left," Kendra offered, listening to the wind outside.

"Thank goodness," said the redhead, "I can't wait to get back to civilization. You will love my bath at home its large enough for me to sit in with my wings extended."

"Goddess," moaned Kendra, "you, a hot bath and a warm room, that sounds like heaven right now," she buried her nose in the fiery red tresses of her lover.

Dominique's lips curved in a smile that did sound like a very good idea right now. The smile faded as she listened to the wind outside, she sighed, unfortunately the reality of it was still a few days away. It was still only midmorning; they had several hours to go until the evening.

"I'd change into my were-jaguar form for the fur coat, but I don't want to go out there and cook the food I'd need to sustain it," Kendra grumbled.

The redhead grimaced, remembering how enjoyable making breakfast had been, it seemed like it had taken forever for the simple meal to cook and they had huddled near the open side of the propane stove to help keep the wind from blowing out the flame. She searched her mind for something to do besides listen to the wind outside, after last night she didn't feel like discussing the past today, it would have to be something else. "What technologies were you talking about that I might be interested in for Nightstone?" she asked her mind finally seizing upon an acceptable topic. Her lips curved upward and her eyes lit with amusement as she saw the bemused expression on her lover's face.

"Umm," Kendra said and then stopped with a frown.

Dominique began chuckling.

"Yea, yea, you do better without any preparation or research," Kendra groused with a smile. "I'm trying to remember here…" she got a faraway look in her eye, "let's see there are a few different types of light sources their working on to replace traditional and fluorescent lights that use much less electricity and then there's the different types of fuel cells that are under development."

The redhead's eyes narrowed in thought, "I believe I've heard something about hydrogen fuel cells, they use liquid hydrogen and produce water vapor as waste correct?"

Kendra nodded, "there are different types of fuel cells though, and the one I'm thinking about for Nightstone is the one that uses biogas as a fuel."

"Biogas?" Dominique asked, "You mean like methane?" she guessed.

The black haired woman nodded, "exactly, and I happen to know that New York City has been considering renovating one of its sewage waste treatment centers into an anaerobic digestion facility to help cut down on the amount of organic waste that they burn and ship out to landfills."

Dominique leaned back and eyed her suspiciously, "you aren't seriously suggesting that Nightstone get involved with sewage treatment?" her voice held disbelief and a touch of indignation.

"Why not?" Kendra replied calmly, "if you do decide to that fuel cells are of interest to you then it would help to have a method of obtaining cheap biogas to fuel them, and even if you don't it's an investment in the environment. I've been thinking of investing in both technologies simply because I think their development needs to be encouraged. The world's oil won't last forever and besides its terribly polluting to the environment. We need to find other ways to produce the power we require."

"You're serious," Dominique said, eyeing her thoughtfully.

Kendra nodded, "I am, I know the fuel cells still need some development, but they hold such promise Dominique. If the lifetime of the components can be doubled or even better tripled, and the cost to manufacture them can be cut, they hold the promise of producing energy for substantially less than the cost of current methods. Think of the effect on prices if the energy cost to produce any item from start to finish was cut by one quarter."

Dominique was thinking of it, and there were several interesting scenarios running through her mind. However, everything depended on whether or not the fuel cells could be developed to the point that they produced energy for substantially less than that produced by current technologies. "You really think that can be done?" she prodded, trying to see how certain Kendra was about this idea.

The black-haired woman shrugged, "I don't know for sure that it can be, but I don't see why a company that can develop hand held laser weapons can't manage to engineer a cheaper and more efficient fuel cell. I've heard of your laser rifles and to produce a coherent laser beam you must have a very powerful and efficient power source in them."

The redhead's eyes narrowed, this time in true irritation, "Those are highly sensitive military contracts; no one working on them should be talking about them so how did you hear about that?" she asked sharply.

Kendra grinned lazily, unmoved by her lover's show of temper, "I told you I've kept up with what Nightstone's been doing. You know you can't keep something that interesting completely under wraps. Besides, I haven't heard anything specific, but then again I don't need to. There are some things that one just has to know some basic physics to understand, and the amount of power needed to produce a laser beam is one of those."

Dominique let go of her temper with a sigh, what Kendra was saying was true, all someone needed to know was that a hand held laser weapon had been developed to know that a matching advance in power sources had to have been developed as well for a working weapon to even exist. "So you think the technology Nightstone developed to supply enough energy to produce a laser beam can be adapted for fuel cells."

"I don't know can it?" Kendra inquired, arching her eyebrow at her lover. "I don't know anything specific about what Nightstone developed, just that your company had to have made such an advance."

"Find out, come and work for me," Dominique asked impulsively.

Kendra stared at her, surprised, "And do what?" she asked, not agreeing or disagreeing as yet.

The more Dominique thought about the idea the better it sounded to her. "You said you wanted to help me fulfill the tasks the Ancient One gave me. Help me figure out if there's any promise in these new technologies, help me figure out how to the help the other gargoyles."

Kendra's eyes wandered over the delicate features of her lover, she asked quietly, "we haven't discussed how much we want to see each other when we get back, are you sure you want me around every day?"

Dominique stared at her uncertainly, "I hadn't thought about it…I just assumed we would spend as much time as we could…would you rather not?"

Warm blue eyes met and meshed with green, "no, I'd rather spend time with you. I just wanted to make sure you had thought about it before offering me a position where we would be seeing each other in a boss employee setting every day."

"Will that be a problem for you?" the redhead asked hesitantly, "Me being your employer?"

"Just so long as you don't go getting any ideas about how much control you have over me once we leave work," Kendra commented

Dominique smiled wryly, "even at work I suspect you will have your limits."

Undoubtedly," agreed Kendra with a smirk.

The redhead snuggled closer to the black-haired woman's warm body, "Special Projects," she said suddenly, and then she grumbled, "no wait, I already have one of those."

"What?" asked Kendra, confused.

Dominique responded, "I was trying to figure out a position for you, I already have a Special Projects Division in Research and Development so I can't use that," she frowned. "New Technologies…" she shook her head, "no that wouldn't cover everything." Her face cleared, "New Technologies and Special Projects Director…perfect."

She could feel Kendra chuckling silently beside her, "Nice title, but what would such a person do?"

"Explore the viability of new technologies out on the market to see if they're of interest to the company and other projects that would require specialized handling such as helping the various gargoyle clans," Dominique replied.

Kendra was intrigued; having an official position at Nightstone Unlimited to do what she planned to do anyway would definitely make things easier.

"You like that idea don't you", said Dominique satisfied

Kendra grinned, "it does sound interesting," she admitted, "why don't we see how it goes for both of us, maybe a trial period of a couple of months?" she offered.

Dominique nodded reluctantly, she wanted to make the position permanent, but could see the sense of seeing how everything worked out. "I'll announce it as soon as I get back to Nightstone and work out a salary offer for you."

"Mmm," Kendra murmured snuggling down further into the sleeping bag, "I'll work for stock options too; I have confidence in Nightstone with you at the helm."

The redhead looked over at her, her cheeks flushing in pleasure at the compliment.

* * *

It was the tenth day, it was night, and Dominique and Kendra were crouched behind pine trees as they watched for Rachael to indicate that it was safe for them to approach her home. The only thing that truly concerned Kendra was the few dogs that she could see wandering around the small town, they seemed to be having their own social a few yards down the street from Rachael's home.

Kendra's attention returned sharply to the red brick single story home, there was movement in the doorway; it was Rachael motioning for them. Running in a low crouch, they made their way to the door and slipped past her into a small entryway. One hesitant bark indicated that one of the dogs had seen or smelt them; it was followed by a few more. As Rachael shut the door behind them they straightened, and gave almost simultaneous relieved sighs, they were back to civilization. The dogs outside barked a few more seconds before settling back down to whatever they had been doing before the interruption.

Rachael turned towards them, "I bought some jeans and sweaters for you a few days ago if you would like take baths and change into something clean while I heat up dinner."

Thoughts of immersing herself in warm water filled Dominique's mind, "That sounds nice," she said gratefully.

The Cree woman smiled, "I thought that might be the case, especially after the temperatures dropped yesterday." She stepped back and pointed down the hallway to her left, "your bedroom is the last door down this hallway, and the bathroom is the last door on the right. Take your time, I have a chicken that I need to put in the oven to cook so it will be about an hour until dinner is ready."

One very warm bath later, Dominique paused in the door of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her to kiss Kendra. "I hope I left enough hot water for you, I tried not to be too greedy with it," she smiled.

"And I thank you for that," Kendra replied with a matching smile. She looked up the hallway toward the rest of the house, "Rachael needs help with dinner once you get dressed. I set the table, but there are still a few things left to do before it's ready. She's got quite a spread planned for dinner, we're going to be stuffed."

Dominique inhaled, "it already smells wonderful." The thought of eating a dinner that wasn't cold in five minutes and then slipping into a real bed with Kendra beside her was sorely tempting. However, they needed to make the amulets tonight for first thing in the morning they would be pretending that Rachael had just found them hiking into town after ten days of hard travel through the wilderness. "I'll go and see what she needs done as soon as I dress," she assured the black-haired woman, "now go take your bath." Kendra grinned at her and shut the door slowly, forcing the towel wrapped redhead to retreat to keep it from touching her.

Dominique made a face at the door before smirking in amusement and turning toward Rachael's guest bedroom. A few minutes later, she walked back wearing stiff new blue jeans, thick socks on her feet and a soft cowl necked cream-colored sweater. She walked down the hallway looking around curiously; blankets, which she guessed were locally woven, hung on the walls adding a warm touch to the simple white walls. Next to them were simple charcoal drawings, they varied wildly in their subject matter from landscapes to animals to simple portraits. Dominique leaned closer to one, curious as to whom the artist might be, but she couldn't see the name it was hidden by the frame.

The redhead followed her nose and was soon stepping into the kitchen where Rachael was slicing tomatoes. The Cree woman looked up from her task and smiled, "You look more relaxed and comfortable."

"I am," Dominique acknowledged, "thank you for the clothes." She hesitated, Rachael's home indicated the woman was not poor, but certainly not as well off as she was, "If you will let me know how much you've spent on us I'd like pay you back."

Rachael shook her head, "the clothing is a gift from me to you," she said firmly. Seeing the argumentative look on the redhead's face she added, "If you feel the need to give a gift in return you could always donate to the tribal youth fund, it's what pays for the equipment I use when I take the children out into the bush. Something's always being damaged and needing to be replaced."

The green eyes narrowed, meeting the brown ones of the senior Owl's chosen in a brief test of wills before Dominique nodded, "Very well. Now is there something I can help you with?"

Rachael nodded and reached up into the cabinet bringing out a box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie mix, "Would you like to make the brownies for desert?"

Dominique's eyes widened, feeling slightly embarrassed she admitted, "I've never actually made brownies I've always bought them from the bakery down the street."

"That's alright their easy, you're just adding water, oil and an egg to the mix and then stirring in the fudge, and I'm right here if you have any questions," Rachael assured her.

The redhead accepted the box from her, glancing down at the back where the instructions were clearly laid out, "Where do you keep your mixing bowls?" As Dominique pulled a mixing bowl from underneath a counter, she added with a smirk, "Besides I've been missing real chocolate, those meal replacement bars may have claimed they had a chocolate coating, but it tasted suspiciously like chocolate flavored paraffin."

Rachael chuckled, "I can assure you those brownies will not taste like that."

* * *

It was the tenth night since her mother and Kendra Canmore had been kidnapped, Angela had expected news tonight when she had awoken. However, as with the previous night and the night before that there had been none. She had come out onto the battlements to get away from the dour looks of Brooklyn and her father at the continuing news that neither Demona nor Kendra Canmore had been found though the Canadians were still diligently searching for them.

She had asked Lexington how cold it was where the plane had crashed and his answer had troubled her. It was cold in New York City tonight at 33 degrees, but where the plane had crashed it was minus ten degrees. She didn't really feel the cold tonight, but she had no doubt that if it were as cold here as it was there that she would be feeling it, gargoyle cold tolerance only went so far.

How were her mother and Kendra Canmore surviving in such conditions? The young gargoyles thoughts faltered as she acknowledged her own strong doubts that Demona would actually help a human across 350 miles of rugged, cold terrain. Yet it had been ten days now without sign of either of them, and Angela could only think that so much time had passed without either being found because Demona was traveling with Kendra Canmore and they were limited to the human's pace.

She knew that her father, Brooklyn, and Elisa thought that Kendra Canmore was already dead, either by Demona's hand, or because Demona left Kendra behind while the immoral gargoyle made her way back without the much slower human. However, each day that passed without news made Angela more certain that both would be found, and more certain that her mother had important plans she for which required Kendra Canmore. The young lavender female didn't know why her mother needed the Canmore woman, but she was certain that sooner or later the clan would find out, and that whatever scheme her mother was planning that the immortal gargoyle would try once again to persuade her daughter to join her.

Angela breathed out an unhappy sigh; no matter what her mother tried, no matter what lies she told this time, she would be ready. Her mother using her to try and kill Goliath had finally shown Angela that the rest of the clan had been right all along, her mother could not be trusted and she would not forget that bitter lesson.

* * *

The three women had adjourned to the living room after their dinner where a fire crackled merrily in the fireplace. Dominique and Rachael were enjoying small glasses of ruby port, while Kendra pronounced herself, after one sniff of the port, happy with another glass from the second bottle of white Bordeaux they opened with dinner.

The sound of the stove timer went off in the kitchen; both Rachael and Dominique put down their glasses and began to rise. The two women looked at one another indecisively, Rachael said, "I need to show you how to check for doneness anyway."

Kendra rose and followed them, she leaned on the door and watched as Dominique pulled the rectangular pan out of the oven and placed it on the cooling rack. The smell of chocolate filled the air as Rachael inserted a wooden toothpick in the center and pulled it out, showing the redhead the clean end. "If there had been batter still uncooked you would need to put it back in for five minutes and check again until it's cooked all the way through. Now it needs to set for fifteen minutes and then we can slice it into squares."

The way Dominique was staring wistfully at the brownies was too cute, Kendra decided, the redhead obviously had been missing her chocolate fix. Still it would be fifteen minutes before the brownies were ready. "When are we going to make the amulets?" she asked curiously, reasoning that it was a good question to distract the two women from watching the timer impatiently.

"We can start at any time," Rachael answered. "It won't be that hard, but it will require each of you to transform at least once, so I wanted to wait until I'm sure there won't be any unexpected visitors tonight before starting. Unless it's an emergency no one will visit after ten o'clock, so after that I'll turn off the lights and we can be fairly certain of being uninterrupted while we work."

"That sounds like a prudent idea," observed Dominique. "What exactly will we be doing and why do we have to transform?"

"The amulets are supposed to be the means by which you shapeshift. I want you to watch what happens to the life and nature energy in each of you while you transform. Once you do, it will become fairly obvious what energy signature the amulets need to carry for them to appear as if they are allowing you to transform," Rachael explained.

Dominique frowned thoughtfully, trying to imagine what the Cree woman was describing, she still wasn't certain how they would get the energy signature into the amulet though she had an idea of how it might be done. Two nights ago the Ancient One had shown her how to mend the small rips she made in the sleeping bag by manipulating and repairing the lattice-like structure of the nature energy that formed the material of the bag. It wasn't that hard to imagine that you could overlay more energy onto the nature energy lattice of the amulet or even slightly change the structure of the amulet's nature energy itself.

"Trust me," Rachael said, "it will make sense once you watch Kendra transform."

A knock on the front door startled all three women.

"Darn it," swore Rachael softly, "here take your glasses and go to the guest room I always keep that door closed so it won't look suspicious."

They grabbed their glasses and turned to leave, behind them they heard the Cree woman mutter, "thank goodness we already cleaned up from dinner, that would have been hard to explain away."

As they went by the living room, Kendra looked inside double-checking that they hadn't left any evidence that Rachael had company tonight. The bottle of wine and the bottle of port were sitting on a side table; Kendra took a quick detour inside the room and grabbed the wine bottle. Dominique, who had been staring after her with a puzzled frown, nodded and mouthed silently, 'good catch.' They hurried down the hall and closed the door behind them as the Cree woman went to the door.

Through the closed door, they heard her say, "Good evening Chief, what brings you by tonight?"

A gravely male voice answered, "Those two women who were kidnapped, the Mounties think that if their still alive they might be somewhere north of us by now. They asked us if we could send out a few search parties to look for them. The search planes haven't spotted them, but if their hiking through the forest it would be hard for them to find an open spot to even signal a plane."

"You want to know if I'm interested in going?" Rachael asked.

"That," the male voice hesitated, "and if you had heard anything from the wind people about them. With the weather as cold as it has been and with nether woman familiar with living in the bush, I'm just not sure…"

Rachael interrupted him, "They are still alive James, the animal spirits are guiding their steps in their journey and it will end when the spirits guide them out of the bush."

Dominique was surprised that the Cree woman had given the man so much of the truth, she frowned, Rachael hadn't said anything about this James being one of them.

There was a long moment of silence before James spoke again, "when I asked you to go to the spirits and ask that they guild their path to safety I was not expecting the spirits to take such an interest in them. They are not Iiyiyuu."

"The spirits are of the land not our people and they may speak to anyone with the ears to listen and the heart to hear their message," Rachael said in a chiding tone.

Dominique bowed her head; Rachael's words seemed to be meant for her as much as they were for the one she called James. The gargoyle was only too aware that it was only because of a series of unrelated events that led her to having the open ears and heart the Owl's chosen was speaking about. She felt Kendra shift beside her and the black-haired woman's arms were around her pulling her tight to her lover's warm body. She turned so that she could fit more comfortably against the other woman and rested her head upon Kendra's shoulder.

"Yes elder," his voice sounded abashed. There was another moment of silence, "I can't exactly tell the Mounties that the spirits are guiding them. I didn't believe in the spirits as anything but tribal tales until that blizzard that almost killed me, and the wolf spirit lead me to safety."

Rachael responded, "Then simply don't tell them, I'm sure Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore won't mention anything directly either."

"Probably not," he agreed, "they told me it was exhaustion and the onset of hypothermia that caused me to hallucinate."

"But you've never thought that, the first thing you did when you got out of the hospital was come to me," Rachael said.

They heard him chuckle, "I know I didn't have a clue where I was by the time the spirit came to me, so there's no way a hallucination of mine could have lead me through that blizzard directly back to the village. I came to you because I knew you were the one who could teach me how to thank the wolf spirit for saving my life, and that's why I'm glad you've agreed to join us tomorrow." There was a short pause before Dominique and Kendra heard his voice again. "I've got a few more houses to visit tonight so I need to get going. I'll see you around eight in the morning?"

"I'll be ready," Rachael assured him. The two women heard the door open and then shut again a few seconds later. Dominique pulled reluctantly away from Kendra as they heard footsteps come up the hallway. The door opened, Rachael sighed, "Well I guess you two will be waking me up pounding on my door to get in from the cold earlier than I had originally thought," she said with an amused chuckle.

"Does that mean you won't have coffee ready for us then?" asked Kendra cheekily.

Rachael stared at her for a moment in surprise before breaking out in laughter. When the laugher died down she said, "I should show you the amulets I made, they turned out rather nice I think."

She led them down the hallway past the living room and to the opposite end of the house from the guest bedroom. The room was as different from the rest of the house as could be imagined, the floor was covered with large white tiles and workbenches along two of the walls were covered with different types of equipment. Along the walls, shelves were hung with what looked like jewelry in various stages of production upon them.

"You cast metals," Dominique said sounding intrigued.

Rachael turned and looked at her, "You've cast silver before?"

The redhead nodded, "and gold and copper. I have a similar room in my house, though I don't have quite the extensive setup you do."

"I make jewelry pieces to sell at the gift shop," Rachael explained. She picked up two pendants on one of the shelves, one black and silver and the other dark red and gold. They glittered in the light as she handed them to the two women.

Dominique looked down at the simple oval pendant; there was a large dark reddish stone with bands of white running through it, which she suspected was treated sardonyx. The oval stone was set in an elegant gold setting, and carved into its surface was the outline of a female human. The lines of the carving were simple and yet they managed to convey the sense of the elegance and beauty of the woman. She looked over at Kendra's pendant, it was similar to hers except that it was set in silver and the stone in the center was black with white lines and was probably onyx. Dominique wasn't surprised to see the image of a jaguar carved into Kendra's stone. The way the carvings were drawn looked familiar, but she couldn't place the context.

"It's beautiful," said Kendra sincerely staring down at the carved jaguar image. "You did the carvings yourself didn't you, they remind me of the charcoal drawings you have hanging up."

Rachael nodded, "I've been drawing for many years now, first with charcoal on birch bark and then with paper and pencil. I still prefer charcoal though; sometimes the pencil just makes too harsh a line."

"These are very beautiful pieces," agreed Dominique examining once again the carving on hers. Now that she knew Rachael had drawn these, she could easily see the resemblance between the carving and the drawings she had noticed earlier.

Rachael looked at the watch on her wrist, "In another hour we can start, it should be late enough then that no one else will drop by to see me."

* * *

Early the following morning it was time for their deception to begin and Rachael was much more awake than either Dominique or Kendra. "Ok, I've got some sweats here for you two to change into after your baths," the Cree woman announced. "I'll put the survival gear you were wearing into the washing machine along with a second set that's close enough in appearance for it to have come from the same place. When their done I'll ask you if you want them back and you will tell me no, then I'll put them with the rest of the winter gear we keep for the camp. They'll get mixed in and no one will be able to tell which pieces were yours."

"You keep spare winter clothing around?" asked Kendra curiously.

Rachael nodded, "I keep spare clothing in the shed for the children to use while we are out in the bush. They grow so fast that it's just easier that way rather than their parents buying expensive hiking gear every year."

Dominique took the last sip from her mug of coffee, "Alright," she said, "So I guess the next step would be for us to take quick baths?" Both Kendra and she were wearing white robes, their clothes already having been appropriated and thrown into the wash to be mixed in with Rachael's clothing until they got ready to leave.

The Cree woman nodded, "As soon as one of you is done and the other one in the bath, I'll call up the tribal police to tell them you showed up on my doorstep about thirty minutes ago and were both not particularly interested in talking to anyone until you had baths, fresh clothing and coffee."

"That would have been accurate enough," Dominique agreed with a smile. She shuddered, "I can't imagine how horrid those clothes would have been after ten straight days in them." She looked over at Kendra, "You want to go first this time?"

Sure," the black-haired woman agreed easily, rising from her chair and placing her coffee cup in the sink. Dominique turned to watch her walk gracefully down the hallway on bare feet, then again everything her lover did was graceful she reflected. She turned back to the table; Rachael was watching her with a small smile upon her lips.

"I can see that you two have become even closer," the Cree woman noted, "Have you talked about what will happen once you return to New York?"

"She's coming to work for me to help me with my tasks," Dominique responded. She smiled, "I'll be making up a new department just for her, New Technologies and Special Projects, they will do research on companies and technologies that Nightstone might be interested in acquiring as well as troubleshooting."

"You're planning on using her gifts then," Rachael commented perceptively.

"On the tasks the Ancient One gave me, yes, I am. I'd be a fool not to," the redhead stated firmly. She continued in a grimmer tone, "I wouldn't put it past Goliath to warn the clans about me if he heard or even suspected I was trying to make contact with them. Chances are I'll have to send Kendra to deal with the clans rather than going myself. At least she'll have a chance at getting them to listen to her whereas I might not if Goliath does what I'm almost certain he will. Hopefully after a year or so he'll decide I'm not evil incarnate anymore and I won't have to worry about it."

Rachael winced, "I didn't know it was that bad between you and your clan."

"It is," Dominique replied sadly, "even between me and my daughter." After a quick glance at the clock, she began telling Rachael about what Kendra had referred to as the last parting gift from the Weird Sister's enchantment. The plans she had made with the Assassin to deceive the clan and kill Goliath that had fallen apart so badly the weekend just before the kidnapping. As Kendra walked back into the kitchen she was saying, "The human I had hired told them everything, Goliath escaped and the last thing my daughter said to me was to save what I had to say to her for my next performance," Dominique said sadly. "So now you know why I said that attempting to tell them about what's happened during the last week wouldn't get me anywhere, they simply wouldn't believe me."

Rachael looked like she was having difficulty finding something to say in response.

Dominique chuckled sadly, "It's alright. I wouldn't believe me either if I were them." She looked over at Kendra, "And I see its time for me to start my bath," the redhead returned her attention to Rachael, "and for your phone calls to begin."

Rachael and Kendra heard her mutter sarcastically as she left the kitchen for the bathroom, "This should be fun."

Kendra chuckled quietly at the comment.

"Are we ready?" Rachael asked picking up the phone

"I think it's more of a ready or not situation," observed Kendra dryly, "since I don't think we can sneak back to New York and pretend we were never missing."

Rachael chuckled, "that would be much easier wouldn't it, but unfortunately too many people know." She started dialing a number, "Hello," she said into the phone, "Is Chief Winters there?" A moment later she said, "James, I was out checking my gear for the search party today and guess who I found walking out of the forest."

Kendra could clearly hear the shouted, "You found them!" from where she was sitting across the table.

Rachael jerked the phone away from her ear, "James, my hearing is just fine, no need to yell," she said grouchily.

From the phone in Rachael's hand, Kendra heard the distinctive gravelly voice from last night ask, "Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore are at your house?"

"Taking warm baths as we speak, and I'm about to make breakfast for them," Rachael confirmed raising the phone to her ear once again. "For some reason anything other than food bars sounded good to them," she added in a dry tone.

The Cree woman listened for a little while longer before saying, "they look alright to me, and I've already checked their hands and feet for frostbite before letting them bathe. But you're probably right it would be a good idea to get Dr. Meadows to look them over." She listened for several more seconds then said, "Alright I'll expect you and the doctor in about thirty minutes."

Rachael hung up the phone and turned back to Kendra, "Eggs, bacon and biscuits sound good?"

"Wonderful," responded Kendra with a grin, "what can I help you with?"

Four hours later, Dominique heaved a sigh of relief as the door shut behind the two detectives from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Tribal Police Chief Winters. Dr. John Meadows had left several hours ago after pronouncing himself surprised at their excellent health considering the conditions they had hiked through for ten days. Both Dominique and Kendra had downplayed the lack of any injuries, merely saying that they were both in excellent health when the journey had begun and that had obviously helped them survive it. The snowy haired doctor had shook his head and told them they were both incredibly lucky as well, good health and conditioning did only so much when stacked against cold weather.

Kendra looked the elderly man in the eye and replied, "I know we are lucky, I knew something was watching out for us when we crawled our way out of that cage they put us in and we found the kidnappers dead in the front of the plane. We probably should have died there but we didn't, and we were incredibly lucky to find good places to shelter and get warm every night."

Dr. Meadows sat back in his chair and stared at her, "The spirits must have been watching over you," he finally replied, "being able to warm up every night is probably what saved you from getting frostbite."

Knowing that the tribal police chief was watching them keenly, Kendra and Dominique allowed themselves to share a long look. "I'm certain that they were Doctor," the redhead finally replied, "And I'm very grateful to them that they decided to help us," she finished sincerely.

The doctor seemed surprised at her words while James Winters nodded as if they had answered a question for him.

Dr. Meadows left immediately afterwards and they had sat down and waited for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detectives while having round of coffee. Once the two detectives had arrived and joined them at the kitchen table the questions about the kidnapping and their journey began.

With Rachael helping they had come to an agreement on what story to give the authorities last night. Except for a few changed details it was essentially the truth. They had been talking in Dominique's office before heading down to the gymnasium to spar when the helicopter had shown up outside the building. The helicopter door had opened and they realized someone inside was pointing a weapon at them just in time for the glass to shatter. Kendra had noticed the gas grenade, but had been unable to get to it before falling unconscious from the gas. The next time the two women had awoken, they were in cages in the hold of a plane. Yes they had seen one of their kidnappers, but he had been wearing a mask and didn't speak to them he had just given them a food bar and a water bottle and left once again. When the plane landed, he, or someone else about his size, had shown up again and shot them with tranquilizer darts. The next time they woke the plane had crashed and they were freezing but the cage had been warped enough for them to force their way out.

Neither of them said much about the trip except to say that they had covered as much ground as they could while it was daylight and then found or made shelters during the nights. It had been difficult, but with the compass they had headed due south through the woods where it was warmer. Yes, they had heard the planes a few times but they hadn't seen them due to the thickness of the tree canopy. The past two days had been hard with the colder weather, but they had pushed though realizing from the topographical map that they were at last close to a town and the end of their journey.

After the questions were done, the RCMP detectives asked them to make themselves available for future questions and to please not discuss the case with the news media as it was an ongoing investigation of a federal crime in both Canada and the United States.

All of that had taken approximately four hours, and now it was just she, Kendra and Rachael once again.

"So," Rachael's voice had Dominique opening her eyes once again, "now that their gone did you two want to go shopping for something other than sweats?"

"That would be nice," Kendra responded promptly.

The redhead looked down at the worn sweats she was wearing with a frown at the idea of appearing in public with them on, she sighed in resignation, "I guess it would look odd for you to have bought us clothing before we arrived wouldn't it."

The Cree woman grinned, "I got the jeans and sweaters in Alma so no one would associate my purchasing them with your arrival, but no, there's no way you can show up in them this morning it would look too suspicious."

"Let's get going then," Kendra said, glancing over at Dominique, "the faster we buy something the sooner we can wear something else."

The redhead wracked her brain; there was something she knew she was forgetting. Her green eyes opened wide, "Nightstone," she exclaimed, "I haven't called them yet."

"Opps," chuckled Kendra, "I guess that would be a good idea wouldn't it, and we need to go ahead and arrange for transportation back to the city as well."

"Candice can do that," Dominique said, heading back toward the kitchen, she paused for a moment looking back at Rachael, "this shouldn't take me long, but I need to let them know I'm alright and will be at work and expecting updates next week."

The Cree woman waved her hand in a shooing motion, "I'll go work on some jewelry orders, come up and get me when you're ready."

Dominique nodded; she looked over inquiringly at Kendra.

Kendra picked up the newspaper, which had been placed on a table just inside the front door when James Winters and Dr. Meadows had arrived, "I'd like to take a look at the newspaper, find out what's been happening in the world."

The redhead glanced at the newspaper in her lover's hand, that was a good idea, but it was something she would have to do later today. She walked to the kitchen and was pleased when Kendra followed and sat down at the table with the newspaper.

She dialed her secretary's desk number and waited impatiently, on the fourth ring it was picked up, "Candice Greene…"

Dominique didn't wait for her to trot out the standard greeting, "Candice its Ms. Destine, I need you to arrange for transport tomorrow from Alma Quebec to New York, just after lunch would be preferable, and inform the division managers I expect reports from each of them on my desk Monday morning first thing," she said briskly. A quiet snort had her glancing over at Kendra with an arched eyebrow and inquiring look.

The blue eyes were dancing with laughter, but Kendra just shook her head and looked back down at the paper.

Candice still hadn't replied, there was absolute silence on the line. Dominique frowned at it wondering if the connection had been dropped when her secretary finally responded in a very hesitant questioning voice, "Ms. Destine?"

She was about to snap irritably when she looked up and saw Kendra watching her, she sighed, reminded of her promise, "Yes Candice its Dominique Destine, I assure you I'm quite alive and well even though it was a bit of a hike to find a phone," she said dryly.

There was another amused snort from the one person peanut gallery.

There was silence once again before her secretary asked hesitantly, "Was that a joke Ms Destine?"

Dominique rolled her eyes, "Apparently not a very good one," she responded wryly. "Now that we have established that I am indeed alive did you hear what I said before?"

"Yes…" the initial answer didn't sound as certain as she would have liked, then Candice's voice firmed, "you need me to arrange transportation for you from Alma, Quebec back to New York City tomorrow around one to two in the afternoon, and to inform the department managers that you expect reports for each department on your desk Monday morning by ten am?" the last a question.

"Ten will be fine," Dominique confirmed, "Is there anything I should know about right now?"

She listened intently while her secretary filled her in on what had happened during her absence. There hadn't been much; apparently everyone had been waiting for news on the search and rescue operation. The different departments had coasted along working on the last projects she had handed out before the kidnapping. It could have been much worse she reflected, they could have assumed she was dead and started fighting among themselves over who was in charge.

"Oh two other things Candice," she said deciding to get some things started so that she could get Kendra's position mostly set up on Monday. "Tell Research and Development to rename the Special Projects division to Research and Development Special Projects division. There's going to be a new executive level division that has special projects in its name and I want to make sure there's no confusion between the two. Also set up a meeting with the head of Human Resources on Monday at," she hesitated a moment thinking of how long it would take her to get through at least some of the work that had certainly piled up over the last eleven days, "eleven o'clock."

Her secretary asked tentatively, "A new executive level division?"

Dominique could imagine the interest on the woman's face; a new executive level division was fairly big news. "Yes, New Technologies and Special Projects," Dominique responded, reasoning that it wasn't a bad idea for the gossip to go ahead and make its way around the company. That way HR would be ready for her on Monday morning, "Ms. Canmore will be heading up the new division for me."

"Ms. Kendra Canmore?" Candice asked her surprise clear.

"That would be the one," Dominique confirmed. "When you talk to Mr. Cleveland let him know that part of what I would like to see from him on Monday will be an appropriate executive management level salary and stock option offer for Ms. Canmore," she knew that Candice would pass on the emphasis she had placed on the words executive management level.

"Yes Ms. Destine," her secretary responded promptly.

"Thank you Candice," Dominique replied, congratulated herself for remembering not to use her usual crisp 'that will be all' at the woman.

"Yes…" Candice's voice trailed off and Dominique frowned wondering what was wrong, "Umm… I mean you're welcome Ms. Destine. Where may I contact you to let you know the transportation arrangements from Alma?"

Dominique raised an eyebrow at the hesitant response before replying, "You may contact me at this number, if I'm not here just leave a message on…" she paused trying to remember Rachael's last name, but it wouldn't come to her, "just leave a message on the answering machine here," she finished.

"Yes Ms. Destine, I'll start making those arrangements for you now," Candice assured her.

"Very well, goodbye Candice," Dominique said impatient now to end the phone call.

"Goodbye, Ms. Destine," her secretary responded, and with a relieved sigh Dominique hung up the phone.

"Did you realize we missed Thanksgiving?" Kendra asked.

The redhead stared at her in surprise; she glanced at the calendar noting today's date, Thursday, December 4th. "No I hadn't," she said, "I don't celebrate it, it's just a day I have to pay people for not being at work." She frowned, belatedly aware of what the statement said about her attitude towards the idea of her employees taking holidays. Macbeth had never resented the days his people celebrated the various human holidays, he had seemed to take as much enjoyment in them as they.

"Take it one thing at a time," Kendra advised her gently, "your attitudes towards humans have been built over centuries, they won't change in one day or week or even months."

Sometimes, Dominique thought ruefully, Kendra was startlingly intuitive when it came to knowing what she was thinking. "Shall we go tell Rachael that we're ready to go shopping?" she asked.

* * *

"After ten days of search and rescue efforts Dominique Destine and Kendra Canmore walked into the small Cree village of Mistassini, Quebec early this morning. The Canadian Mounted Police say that despite having hiked across over 350 miles of rugged snow covered terrain both women are in excellent health. The RCMP declined to release any details about what the two women had to say regarding their kidnapping citing their on-going joint investigation with the FBI."

The brief news bulletin on the radio had Professor Lennox MacDuff looking abruptly up from the paper he was grading toward the radio. The dreams he had from a few nights ago would not leave him alone, he couldn't get out of his mind Demona's anguished cry of "Luach," and the tears of grief she had cried when the spirit had restored the memories the Weird Sisters had blocked. The dream had been so vivid, had felt so real. He couldn't shake the feeling that it had been real in some way, that some spirit had taken pity upon them both and freed them from the Weird Sisters enchantments.

It wouldn't be hard to find out if it were true, he reasoned to himself, just one moment of pain would answer the question of whether or not the link between them had indeed been broken as the spirit claimed. Besides he wanted to see her again, see if the hardness in her eyes had changed as he remembered from the dream. If it were indeed possible that after all this time they could become friends once again, that there would be someone with which he wouldn't have to pretend to be Lennox Macduff.

* * *

"Here we are," Rachael said as they pulled up in front of a small cinder block building. Behind it was a single runway with a few hangars along its side for the few planes that were kept here. Dominique eyed the small jet waiting on the runway. It was the only jet there and she guessed it was the one that Candice had chartered for them.

She looked over at Rachael; she had been considering this since they had left, but didn't know if the Owl's chosen would be interested. After all, they had taken up quite a bit of Rachael's time in the past week. "Solstice is coming up soon," she broached the subject, "As the shortest night of the year, it was the only holiday that my clan celebrated. It served as both a new year's celebration and when we would give thanks for the good fortunes of the past year." She looked away from Rachael's wise dark eyes, "I haven't celebrated winter solstice for a very long time," she said quietly, "it's simply been too bitter a reminder of all that I've lost over the centuries," she admitted.

Kendra's hand squeezed her shoulder, "that's not the case this year," she commented quietly.

Dominique lightly gripped the hand on her shoulder and held it there as she turned and smiled back at the black haired woman. "That isn't the case this year," she agreed. She turned back to Rachael, "If you don't already have something planned, I'd appreciate it if you would come and celebrate it with…" she glanced back at Kendra questioningly.

Kendra snorted, "You are so funny, no I wasn't planning on going anywhere over the Christmas holidays."

Dominique smiled, she glanced back to Rachael once again, "If you would celebrate it with us," she finished asking.

Rachael smiled, "I need to be back for Christmas Eve, but otherwise than that I don't have anything planned for the days right before then."

"Excellent," Dominique said happily, "Winter Solstice is the 21st this year; I'll charter a plane to pick you up on the nineteenth or twentieth?"

"The nineteenth will be fine," responded Rachael with a smile of her own.

"On the nineteenth then and bring you back on the twenty-third," the redhead said, "I'll have a use for the first time for my guest room."

They got out of the jeep and went around to the back to get the two duffle bags that held the purchases they had made at the village, and the jeans and sweater Rachael had bought for them.

Kendra was the first to turn to Rachael and hug her, "Thank you," she said simply, her blue eyes echoing her gratitude for everything the Cree woman had done for them.

When Kendra stepped back, Dominique didn't hesitate to take her place. She had already made a generous donation to the youth fund as Rachael had suggested, but it still didn't feel like enough to convey her thanks for what the woman had done for both of them by traveling several hours though the cold to bring them supplies and then again to bring them to her home. The redhead stepped back, "Thank you for everything, and if there is anything I can ever do for you let me know."

"Get to know Robert," Rachael answered immediately, "his aunt and uncle see to his material needs, but I don't get the feeling that they really care for him. He needs someone closer than me to talk to and who can take him out shopping or to get something to eat without making it feel like he's a burden to them."

Dominique's eyes narrowed in anger at what Rachael's words implied about Robert's life. "I will," Dominique promised, "I'll contact him this weekend."

"We both will," Kendra added.

Rachael looked over toward the building, "I think your pilot's waiting on you," she said nodding toward it.

Dominique turned and looked in the same direction, there was a man standing in the doorway looking at them uncertainly.

As soon as he saw her looking in his direction, he walked toward them, "Ms. Destine?"

"Yes," Dominique responded crisply, "are you the pilot of the plane Nightstone chartered?"

"I am Ma'am, may I take your bags for you and stow them on the plane?" he asked politely.

"Be careful with them," the redhead instructed him, "they have some breakables in them."

"Yes ma'am I will be," he assured her as he took their bags, "will you be much longer? I was wondering when to start my final flight check."

"Go, I'll see you on the nineteenth," Rachael said.

"I'll dust off a bottle of my fifty year old Oban for us to enjoy," Dominique commented.

Rachael's eyes lit with interest, "I'll look forward to it."

With final waves, the two women followed the pilot into the building and then out to the tarmac and onto the plane for their journey back to New York.

When the plane became airborne, Dominique looked out the window at the dark green of trees and the occasional brilliant white of snow. She was going to miss it in a way she realized with surprise.

"I do want to come back during the summer," Kendra said from the seat beside her.

Dominique nodded, "So do I."


End file.
